From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Can a pastor where a wedding is held delegate faculties for a deacon to assist at marriages in his parish over subjects that are not his?
My wife and I were married by a Deacon in a parish that was no ours but he received faculties from HIS pastor where the marriage was held. Does this make the marriage valid or did the deacon need to also receive permission from OUR local Pastor instead.
Canon 1109 says pastors can assist at weddings of subjects that “are not their own” but it doesn’t mention deacons. Was my marriage still valid but maybe not licit (since our local pastor did not give permission to the deacon but he did receive permission from the pastor of the parish where the wedding took place).
The pastor (parish priest) has the faculty and can delegate to another priest or deacon (or bishop, for that matter).
The principle from the Regulae Iuris is in play here: “Potest quis per alium quod potest facere per seipsum – Someone can do through another what he can do by himself.”
All other things being in order such a marriage is presumptively valid and licit.
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“The pastor (parish priest) has the faculty and can delegate to another priest or deacon (or bishop, for that matter).“
I don’t know if this is exactly what is described in the post above, but I could imagine this might be relevant in the case of a parish right on the border of a different diocese and the pastor of such parish might need to delegate a public Mass to a priest from the neighboring diocese.