The Collaborative International Dictionary
Clandestinity \Clan`des*tin"i*ty\, n. Privacy or secrecy. [R.]
Wiktionary
n. 1 The quality or state of being clandestine. 2 (context religion English) A diriment impediment in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, requiring the presence of witnesses to the marriage vows, one of whom must be a priest or a deacon.
Wikipedia
Clandestinity is a diriment impediment in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. It invalidates a marriage performed without the presence of three witnesses, one of whom must be a priest or a deacon.
It was promulgated in the 16th century by the Council of Trent in the decree called Tametsi. Prior to that time, an unwitnessed exchange of marriage vows was deplored but valid. The decree was enforced only in those regions where it could be proclaimed in the vernacular.
The witnesses must be the parish priest or another priest, with permission either from the parish priest or the local ordinary, and the other two witnesses must be capable of giving witness to the marriage vows.
It was later modified by the decree Ne Temere, to require specific priests, such as the local pastor of the couple's residence.
Further modifications provided that the priest was not necessary if one of the marrying parties was in danger of death or if the vows could not be exchanged before a priest in a reasonable amount of time.
Usage examples of "clandestinity".
Third, they all saw the necessity to return to that clandestinity demanded by Lenin of true believers operating inside a bourgeois society.
Thus the leitmotif of the whole span of the Hard Left's conduct these past forty months has been a return to that clandestinity that worked so well through the early and mid-1970s.
Thus the leitmotif of the whole span of the Hard Left’s conduct these past forty months has been a return to that clandestinity that worked so well through the early and mid-1970s.
As before, they were mimeographed on both sides, and they could have been recognized anywhere and at any time by the indefinable mark of hesitation that clandestinity imprints.
And the clandestinity of any scheme depended upon the discretion of the enlisted partner.