Sacrament of marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a basic way of giving and growing in love and together attaining salvation. We are not meant to live in isolation, but to find and fulfil ourselves through the love of others. (Gen 2:18, 21-25). The marriage covenant, through which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, is ordered to the good of the couple as well as to the generation and education of children.

The Church regards the sacrament of matrimony as signifying the union of Christ and the Church. The sacrament gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love which Christ has loved the Church. The sacrament of matrimony perfects the human love of spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life.

Marriage is based on the free consent of the man and the woman celebrating the sacrament. The parties entering into the covenant of matrimony must want to give themselves each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love. The sacrament of Matrimony establishes the couple in a public state of life in the Church. Because of its public and ecclesial nature, it is fitting that the celebration of the sacrament be public and within the framework of a liturgical celebration, before a priest (or a witness authorised by the Church), the witnesses and the assembly of the faithful. Unity, indissolubility and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. By its very nature, marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring. Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a married life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. The marriage of such couples can manifest fruitfulness of hospitality and of sacrifice.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognises the pastoral reality that in spite of the high ideals of the sacrament some marriages break down and spouses separate and obtain a civil divorce. The Church shows pastoral concern and care for those whose marriages have broken down. Although spouses may be separated from each other, they are not separated from the Church because of the breakdown in their marriage.

The Catholic Church does not recognise the possibility of a Church-sanctioned divorce for a sacramental marriage celebrated in the Catholic Church. In some cases, the Catholic Church may grant former spouses an annulment. Annulment is a declaration by Church authority that a given marriage did not fulfil the conditions and criteria of a truly sacramental marriage. An annulment or a “decree of nullity” as it is officially known, is a declaration by a competent authority of the Church that a marriage was invalid from the beginning. This can arise from a “diriment” or invalidating impediment: for example, a basic defect in consent to marriage, or a condition” placed by one or both parties on the nature of the marriage as understood by the Church. An annulment is not a divorce.

Such a decision would be taken by the competent church authority on the recommendation of a competent church tribunal normally at the diocesan level.

The Church may dissolve a valid marriage when one or (or both) of the parties is not baptised as a Christian. This was a practice of the early Church and is mentioned by St Paul in 1 Cor 7:12-15. It is known as the “Pauline Privilege”. It is preferred that Christians marry Christians rather than persons who do not share their faith, especially keeping in mind the advantage for children of the marriage.

The marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic Christian is known as a “mixed marriage” in the Catholic Church. The Catholic party is bound to the normal form of marriage: this must take place in the presence of the local ordinary (bishop) or the pastor or priest (or deacon delegated by either of the parties) with two witnesses. Catholic marriages are normally celebrated at a nuptial Mass. In the case of a mixed marriage, a non-Catholic minister may also assist at the ceremony. Attendants at mixed marriages may also be non -Catholic.