In the spirit of the banns as a public opportunity for interested parties to raise legal objections, the church also issued a press release in late 2000 announcing its intentions.
The only way in which an aggrieved parent could challenge such a marriage was if there had been a mistake amounting to fraud in the calling of the banns.
This gave rise to the practice whereby underage couples would resort to a parish where they were not resident to have the banns called without their parents' knowledge.
Even if they were engaged and had published banns, a posthumous marriage will not necessarily happen, partly because living engaged couples can change their minds at the last minute.