Last week, @counseloftrent mistook a passage in the Roman Catechism for an admonition that two consenting Christian adults cannot wed without permission from her father.

The Catechism specifies that this applies only to “children”.

Canon law makes it utterly clear:

Can. 1057

§1. The consent of the parties, legitimately manifested between persons quali-fied by law, makes marriage; no human power is able to supply this consent.

§2. Matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which a man and a woman mutually give and accept each other through an irrevocable covenant in order to establish marriage.

Can. 1058 All persons who are not prohibited by law can contract marriage.

The modern CCC corroborates:

Matrimonial consent: 1625: The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman, free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free" means:

• not being under constraint;
• not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law.

Exchange of Consent: 1626: The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the indispensable element that "makes the marriage."

If consent is lacking there is no marriage.

CAT of TRENT:

Marriage is not a mere donation, but a mutual agreement; and therefore the consent of one of the parties is insufficient for marriage, the consent of both being essential.

Thomas Aquinas corroborates:

Q. 45, Reply to Objection 1:

The maid is in her father's power, not as a female slave without power over her own body, but as a daughter, for the purpose of education. Hence, in so far as she is free, she can give herself into another's power without her father's consent, even as a son or daughter, since they are free, may enter religion without their parent's consent.

Pope Leo III corroborates in Arcanum Divinae:

It is also a great blessing that the Church has limited, so far as is needful, the power of fathers of families, so that sons and daughters, wishing to marry, are not in any way deprived of their rightful freedom.