Canon law provides two methods for the validation of invalid marriages: simple convalidation and radical sanation.
Validation of a marriage, like making one's consent for the first time, is serious. The pastoral minister is to be assured that the validation is being done for the right reason. Examples of incorrectly using this method of validation would be merely to have a child baptized, to "magically" make a troubled marriage better, to alleviate pressure from family, etc.
If a couple is not validating their marriage in order to have a marriage as the Church understands marriage, the couple should first receive pastoral counseling.
The use of either form of validation will depend upon the circumstances of each couple. The priest or deacon must spend time getting to know the couple and their circumstances before deciding how to validate the marriage.
CONVALIDATIONS
The first method, convalidation, (canons 1156-1160) requires:
RADICAL SANATION
The second method for the validation of an invalid marriage is radical sanation (canons 1161-1165). Radical sanation "is an act of a competent authority which removes the obstacle(s) impeding the consent of the parties from having its natural effects. With this removal the marriage becomes valid from the moment of the elimination of the obstacle(s), and not retroactively to the moment in which the consent was given — this is impossible.
The past cannot be changed. The marriage was initially either valid or invalid. However, by a fiction of law the effects of the marriage are considered to exist from the moment of the consent."8
In Roman Catholic tradition a man and woman establish the marriage covenant when they exchange mutual, personal, consent to marry. In order to have legal effect this exchange of consent is surrounded by certain formalities required for validity. These formalities are governed by norms similar to the norms of making a contract. Ordinarily this means that when a Catholic marries, the marriage vows which establish the marriage covenant must be asked for, received and accepted by a properly delegated minister of the Church, in the presence of at least two witnesses. This is called the canonical form of marriage. Usually this is done in the context of a broader religious ceremony. There are ample circumstances when some of the formalities and other contractual requirements for validity can be dispensed from by an act of ecclesiastical governance executed by a competent minister of the Church. However, nothing can supply for the mutual exchange of consent with the intent to establish the marriage covenant. This must always be really and truly given, and lacking this there is no marriage recognized before the Church.
At times a couple may exchange marital consent which is not accepted by the Church, either because essential formalities have been omitted, the consent was defective, or a nullifying impediment existed at the time of the exchange of marital consent. In such instances the Church does not regard the exchange of marital consent as having legal effect and establishing marriage. Hence, even though the exchange of marital consent may have been real and true, in the eyes of the Church it did not establish marriage. This condition results in an attempted marriage which is a null marriage, hence no marriage before the eyes of the Church. That situation is called a putative marriage, if at least one of the two parties honestly considers himself or herself married. These irregular situations need to be corrected in order for the exchange of marital consent to have legal effect and establish the marriage covenant. In Church law this act of correction is called convalidation. A null marriage can be convalidated in several ways, the most usual and normal of which is for the parties to simply begin anew with the canonical form of marriage described above. However, sometimes this is difficult or impossible. It could happen that unknown to the marrying couple a serious error was made at the time the vows were exchanged, i.e., an unknown impediment to marriage existed, thus rendering the marriage null before the eyes of the Church. It is possible that a Catholic exchanges true and real marital consent with a non-Catholic in a ceremony not legally acceptable before the Catholic Church, i.e., before a civil magistrate. The non-Catholic party may well consider himself or herself as married and see the repeating of marriage vows in a Catholic ceremony as a mere formality without actually establishing marriage. With this mind set it is impossible to go through the Catholic form of marriage since it is required that when one does so the intent is to establish marriage here and now. The intent to go through a church formality or receive a church blessing is not sufficient. Another means of correcting the situation is called a radical sanation which is done without a religious ceremony, but which is surrounded by essentially required formalities.
A radical sanation means that a minister of the Church accepts the marriage vows which originally expressed marital consent, much as in the same manner when the minister of the Church accepts the marriage vows during the wedding ceremony done according to canonical form. The moment these vows are accepted by the specially delegated minister of the Church, they have the legal effect of establishing the marriage. A radical sanation also has some special effects and by fiction of law the marriage is legally regarded as valid from the time the marriage vows were originally made, with the logical result that children born after the pronouncement of these vows are considered legitimate from birth. A radical sanation also dispenses from any ecclesiastical impediment to the marriage which is not reserved to the Holy See. Because a radical sanation produces special legal effects and is surrounded by complicated circumstances, it is an exercise of a very special form of church ministry reserved either to the Holy See or the Diocesan Bishop who often delegates this function to his Judicial Vicar. Since the radical sanation is not accomplished by means of a religious ceremony it is accomplished by another formality, a written statement declaring that a radical sanation is taking effect, i.e., by means of a decree executed by a competent minister of the Church.
Since the minister who radically sanates a marriage is accepting marriage vows originally given with the intent to establish marriage, he needs to be certain that the intent originally made at the time the vows were expressed still remains because that intention to establish marriage is radically essential. He also has to make sure that the ordinary requirements to celebrate a marriage in the Catholic Church are observed. These assurances are routinely achieved through the pastoral services of the parish of the Catholic party who wishes to ecclesiastically sanate his or her civilly but not ecclesiastically valid marriage.
The request for a radical sanation is best made with the assistance of a regular parish minister, who may judge to make such request even without the knowledge of the parties concerned. This could easily happen should a parish minister discover that a marriage of a parishioner is not canonically valid for reasons unknown to the parties concerned, i.e., a diriment impediment to marriage was discovered only after the celebration of the wedding. In such circumstances it may be harmful to disclose the situation to the couple who are living together in good faith under the assumption that they are legally married in the eyes of the Church.