Solemn Vows as Impediment

A person who has contracted marriage validly (and thus has had his marriage ratified) and has also performed the marital act (thus making the ratified marriage a consummated marriage) is bound to the married state oflife, and cannot, without the free consent of his spouse, leave itto enter religion and take solemn vows in an order.

Yet if the marriage is ratified only, and notconsummated, a spouse may leave it and enter religion, takingsolemn vows, whether the other spouse consents or not. For until marriage is consummated, only a spiritual bond exists between the spouses; by consummation, a carnal bond is established, and the spouses are thenceforth really two in one flesh, Now, a purely spiritual bond may be dissolved by the spiritual death which aperson undergoes in dying to the world by taking solemn vows in religion. But the carnal bond is not dissolved so.

When a spouse, after a ratified but not consummatedmarriage, takes solemn vows in religion, the other spouse is free to marry anew. Yet all this must be subjected to the ecclesiasticalcourt for examination, judgment and official declaration of the free status of the abandoned spouse. Otherwise, a new marriage isnot lawful.