Even he admitted that marriage in some way produces grace, and therefore that it should be called a sacrament; but it was only the actual help of grace in subduing passion, which he deduced from marriage as an effect, not ex opere operato, but ex opere operantis (cf. From the earliest times this fundamental proposition has been upheld: Matrimonium facit consensus, i.e. Couples married outside the Church who wish to convalidate their unions should be adequately prepared for the sacrament of marriage. The opinion of Canus finds but little support in the expressions of the Fathers or in papal letters, which state that marriage without the priest is declared unholy, wicked, or sacrilegious, that it does not bring the grace of God but provokes His wrath. For further confirmation of the doctrine that marriage under the New Law confers grace and is therefore included among the true sacraments, the Council of Trent refers to the Holy Fathers, the earlier councils, and the ever manifest tradition of the universal Church. Such has always been the teaching and practice of the Church. However, these arguments likewise fail to carry conviction. The classical Scriptural text is the declaration of the Apostle Paul (Eph., v, 22 sqq. More than half a century later the Patriarch Cyril Lucar, who had adopted the Calvinistic doctrine of only two sacraments, was for that reason publicly declared a heretic by the Synods of Constantinople in 1638 and 1642 and that of Jerusalem in 1672so firmly has the doctrine of seven sacraments and of marriage as a sacrament been maintained by the Greek and by Oriental theologians in general. In the other sacraments, the conditional administration is admissible only within narrow limits. If it cannot be a sacrament for one, then it cannot be a sacrament for the other. Non-Christians cannot receive the sacraments. Marten, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus, I, ix). Again, though he seems to understand that marriage, also, must be administered by the ministers of the Church, it cannot be denied that the contracting parties in Christian marriage must be guided by ecclesiastical regulations, and cannot act otherwise than as ministers subject to the Church or dispensers of the sacrament. Arrangements must be made with the Church office at least 6 months in advance. Even the few; theologians who minimized, or who seemed to minimize, the. This applies to every Catholic, even when marrying a non-Catholic. Only diriment conditions are opposed to the essence of the Sacrament of Marriage, because it consists in an indissoluble contract. These grounds are mostly negative; for example, there is no reason why an unbaptized person should not administer a sacrament, as is clearly done in the case in baptism; or why the sacramental effect should not take place in one party which cannot take place in the other, as in the case of a marriage between baptized persons where one party is in the state of grace and the other is not, so that the sacrament of marriage confers grace on the former, but not on the latter. The appeal, however, to the above authorities is unfortunate. It would not be a. solemn, mysterious symbol of the union of Christ with the Church, which takes concrete form in the individual members of the Church, unless it efficaciously represented this union, i.e. There would be no reason, therefore, why the Apostle should refer with such emphasis to Christian marriage as so great a sacrament, if the greatness of Christian marriage did not lie in the fact, that it is not a mere sign, but an efficacious sign of the life of grace. Its essence, therefore, can exist without the priest, not because it is a necessary sacramentthough it is indeed necessary for human society, just as baptism is necessary for the individualbut because its efficacy does not come from the minister of the Church. Marriage is an indivisible contract which cannot be one thing for one party and another thing for the other party. Today, second-cousin marriages are allowed, and, under some circumstances, a dispensation can be obtained to allow a first-cousin marriage. The Necessity of Requirements for Sacramental Marriage Posted on 2023-06-01 by Jack Church policies about Sacramental Marriage require members to get on the same page as the other congregants (and presumably the Bible). a marriage that bears the sacramental character and is afterwards consummated) is by Divine Law absolutely indissoluble, so that not even the Holy See can on any grounds whatsoever dissolve it. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the first article cited by Canus, entitled Utrum consistant sacramenta in verbis et rebus, raises the following difficulty: Penance and marriage belong to the sacraments: but for their validity, words are unnecessary; therefore it is not true that words belong to all the sacraments.This difficulty he answers at the end of the article: Marriage taken as a natural function and penance as an act of virtue have no form of words: but in so far as both belong to the sacraments, which are to be conferred by the ministers of the Church, words are employed in both; in marriage the words which express mutual consent, and also the blessings which were instituted by the Church, and in penance the words of absolution spoken by the priest. Although St. Thomas mentions the words of blessing along with the words of mutual consent, he expressly calls them an institution of the Church, and hence they do not constitute the essence of the sacrament instituted by Christ. But the grouping of them into one and the same category was left for a later period, when the dogmas of faith in general began to be scientifically examined and systematically arranged. All valid marriages between Catholics are sacramental because you cant be Catholic without being baptized. In the first place, a marriage may have been contracted between unbelievers, one of whom afterwards becomes a Christian, while the other remains an unbeliever. Provided only he intends to contract a true marriage, and expresses the requisite consent, this intention and this expression are sufficient to constitute a sacrament. John Hardon explains in his Pocket Catholic Dictionary, there are four elements common to natural marriage throughout history: It is a union of opposite sexes. The words, it seems, merely introduce a difficulty: whether this expresses his own view, he does not make clear, in so far as the contracting of marriage means the reception of a sacrament; in so far as it is the administration of a sacrament, he regards it as probable that the administering of a sacrament in sin is an additional sin only in the case of ministers ordained for the administration of the sacraments, but the contracting parties in marriage are not such ministers. For, though it was accepted that each of these rites conferred interior grace, yet, in contrast to their common invisible effect, the difference in external ceremony and even in the immediate purpose of the production of grace was so great that, for a long time, it hindered a uniform classification. He says: It is certain that in Christian marriage the contract is inseparable from the sacrament; and that, for this reason, the contract cannot be true and legitimate without being a sacrament as well. Hence not only the marriage between Catholics, but also that contracted by members of the different sects which have retained baptism and validly baptize, is undoubtedly a sacrament. In place of its former sanctity, marriage retained only the significance of a type feebly representing the sanctity that was thenceforth to be acquired; it foreshadowed the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the close union which God was thereby to form with the human race. A dissolution in virtue of the Pauline Privilege is thus not certainly available, since it might be utilized in odium fidei, instead of in favorem fidei. Thus, as Baptism and Holy Orders are sacraments in the strict sense and are recognized as such by the Holy Doctor, he also considers the marriage of Christians a sacrament in the full and strict sense of the word. sacramental character of marriage, set down in the foremost place the proposition that marriage is. But the venerable age, in fact the apostolicity, of the ecclesiastical tradition concerning marriage is still more clearly revealed by the circumstance that the rituals or liturgical books of the Oriental Churches and sects, even of those that separated from the Catholic Church in the first centuries, treat the contracting of marriage as a sacrament, and surround it with significant and impressive ceremonies and prayers. Perhaps the weakest grounds are adduced for the opinion which, in regard to marriage contracted by unbelievers, claims sacramentality and the sacramental grace after baptism for the party who, subsequently to the marriage, is baptized. Learn Religions. II, i, 4; II, ii, 1; XXVI, ii, 3; St. Bonaventure, In IV Sent., dist. As ministers of Word, deacons proclaim the Gospel, preach, and teach in the name of the Church. The term sacrament, applied by the pope to all marriages, even those of infidels, is to be taken in its widest sense, and signifies nothing but a certain holiness inherent in marriage. The discussion must, therefore, be confined to the question, whether through the baptism alone (i.e. Still, if the dispensation is granted, a non-sacramental marriage is valid and can take place inside of a Catholic church. And as in the other sacraments something spiritual is signified by an external ceremony, so here in this sacrament the union of Christ and the Church is typified by the union of man and woman according to the Apostle: `This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church. And as the sacraments effect what they signify, it is clear that the persons contracting marriage receive through this sacrament the grace by which they participate in the union of Christ and the Church. Hence the whole essence and grace-producing power of marriage consists, according to St. Thomas, in the union of man and woman (in presence of the priest), not in the additional blessing of the priest prescribed by the Church. . The effectual sanctification of the human race, or rather of individual men, had now to be accomplished in the way of redemption through the Promised Redeemer, the Son of God made Man. Such statements do not deny the sacramental character of marriage so contracted; but they do condemn as sacrilegious that reception of the sacrament which indeed lays open the source of grace, yet places an obstacle in the way of the sacraments efficacy. The Sacrament of Confession is an essential means of spiritual preparation for marriage. The Church still discourages such marriages, however. Marriage is, in its essential requirements, ever the same, monogamic and indissoluble. As long as both live, there remains a something attached to the marriage, which neither mutual separation nor union with a third can remove; in such cases, indeed, it remains for the aggravation of the guilt of their crime, not for the strengthening of the union. Elsewhere (Gal., iv, 9), St. Paul emphasizes in a most significant fashion the difference between the Old and the New Testament, when he calls the religious rites of the former weak and needy elements which could not of themselves confer true sanctity, the effect of true justice and sanctity being reserved for the New Testament and its religious rites. A priest must preside at this liturgy. The mere fact of a divorce is not sufficient to prove the nullity of a marriage. Hence, among these, marriages were commonly celebrated with religious ceremonies, under the authority of pontiffs, and with the ministry of priestsso great, even in the souls ignorant of heavenly doctrine, was the impression produced by the nature of marriage, by reflection on the history of mankind, and by the consciousness of the human race.. As a partnership, it is a union of equals who come together to form a new family. The following steps are your starting point to prepare for your marriage: Schedule an introductory meeting with your home parish priest or deacon. Of course baptized persons alone receive the sacraments. V., Q. xi (fol. Marriage is a permanent commitment to a partnership of life, one which requires careful thought, much prayer, and intense preparation. Any marriage that is contracted in opposition to the regulations of the Catholic Church is not only non-sacramental but invalid. 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