PUBLIC HONESTY. - It is a bond, analogous to affinity (v.), which, however, unlike the latter, does not derive from a valid marriage, but rather either from an invalid marriage (consummated or not) or from a public or notorious concubinage; the bond, in either case, exists between the man and the relatives of the woman, and between the latter and the relatives of the former (CIC, can. 1078).
Before the CIC the notion of p. o. was different. Since affinity existed always and only if copulation, marital or not, had occurred between the man and the woman (v. AFFINITY), there was called p. o. (or also quasi-affinity) the bond that arose between the relatives of the man and the woman, and between the relatives of the latter and the man, when betrothal had taken place between the man and the woman, or when they had contracted but not consummated a marriage.
P. o. constituted a diriment impediment to marriage, perhaps from around the 10th century; before Gratian, in fact, there is no sure evidence of the existence of this impediment in the legislation of the Church. Even the extension of the impediment up to the Fourth Lateran Council (year 1215) is not very clear: it seems, however, that from that Council it was reduced to the first four degrees, while the Council of Trent later reduced to the first degree alone the impediment of p. o. deriving from betrothal.
In Eastern canon law the notion of p. o. deriving from betrothal or from a non-consummated marriage remained until 1 May 1949, that is, when the motu proprio Crebrae allatae of 22 Feb. 1949 entered into force. The impediment existed in the first and second degree, in the case of p. o. deriving from betrothal, and up to the sixth or seventh or eighth degree, in the other case (for the computation of degrees in Eastern canon law before 1949, v. CONSANGUINITY).
At present, both in Latin canon law (CIC can. 1078) and in Eastern canon law (motu proprio Crebrae allatae, cit., can. 69; AAS, 41 [1949] p. 104), p. o. constitutes an impediment only in the first and second degree of the direct line, that is, between the man and the relatives in the first or second degree of the woman, and between the latter and the relatives in the first or second degree of the man.
To understand well the scope of the impediment, it must be borne in mind: a) that by invalid marriage is meant one which, although null, nevertheless has the appearance of a true marriage; it is necessary, that is, that the matrimonial consent has been manifested (even if only simulated) in the prescribed form or at least in an apparently regular form. If therefore the contracting parties are persons obliged to observe the ecclesiastical form, their civil marriage cannot as such produce the impediment of p. o. (but, if the two have cohabited, the impediment can derive from concubinage); b) that by public concubinage is meant one whose news is already divulged or can reasonably be foreseen will easily be divulged; by notorious concubinage is meant one that results from a sentence or from a judicial confession, or that is publicly known and committed in circumstances such that it cannot be concealed or excused (cf. can. 2197).
The impediment of p. o., not being of natural law but of ecclesiastical law, can be dispensed (v. DISPENSATION); and, in the second degree, it is an impediment of minor degree (CIC, can. 1042 § 2, n. 3; motu proprio Crebrae allatae, can. 31 § 1, n. 3). However, the dispensation is never granted for marriage between the man and a daughter of the woman, when there is some doubt that the daughter was conceived through the act of that man.
This impediment does not apply to unbaptized persons; doubtful, on the other hand, is its applicability in the case of persons who have lived in concubinage (or contracted an invalid marriage) before receiving Baptism, and then, after the concubinage or pseudo-matrimonial cohabitation has ceased, have received Baptism.
Likewise doubtful is the impediment in the case of a marriage invalid for defect of consent. It is also doubtful whether the impediment persists, together with the supervening affinity, when the two concubines contract marriage with each other, or when the invalid marriage is validated.
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