Short Catechism (Compendium) on the Sacrament of Matrimony
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The couple are TV newscasters Mariz Umali and Raffy Tima Both of them attend Mass at the Sacred Heart Parish-Shrine where Mariz is a lector. |
337. What is the plan of God regarding man and woman?
God who is love and who created man and woman for love has called them to
love. By creating man and woman he called them to an intimate communion of
life and of love in marriage: "So that they are no longer two, but one flesh"
(Matthew 19:6). God said to them in blessing "Be fruitful and multiply"
(Genesis 1:28).
338. For what ends has God instituted Matrimony?
The marital union of man and woman, which is founded and endowed with its own
proper laws by the Creator, is by its very nature ordered to the communion and
good of the couple and to the generation and education of children. According
to the original divine plan this conjugal union is indissoluble, as Jesus
Christ affirmed: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mark
10:9).
339. How does sin threaten marriage?
Because of original sin, which caused a rupture in the God-given communion
between man and woman, the union of marriage is very often threatened by
discord and infidelity. However, God in his infinite mercy gives to man and
woman the grace to bring the union of their lives into accord with the
original divine plan.
340. What does the Old Testament teach about marriage?
God helped his people above all through the teaching of the Law and the
Prophets to deepen progressively their understanding of the unity and
indissolubility of marriage. The nuptial covenant of God with Israel prepared
for and prefigured the new covenant established by Jesus Christ the Son of
God, with his spouse, the Church.
341. What new element did Christ give to Matrimony?
Christ not only restored the original order of matrimony but raised it to the
dignity of a sacrament, giving spouses a special grace to live out their
marriage as a symbol of Christ’s love for his bride the Church: “Husbands,
love your wives as Christ loves the Church” (Ephesians 5:25).
342. Are all obliged to get married?
Matrimony is not an obligation for everyone, especially since God calls some
men and women to follow the Lord Jesus in a life of virginity or of celibacy
for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. These renounce the great good of
Matrimony to concentrate on the things of the Lord and seek to please him.
They become a sign of the absolute supremacy of Christ’s love and of the
ardent expectation of his glorious return.
343. How is the sacrament of Matrimony celebrated?
Since Matrimony establishes spouses in a public state of life in the Church,
its liturgical celebration is public, taking place in the presence of a priest
(or of a witness authorized by the Church) and other witnesses.
344. What is matrimonial consent?
Matrimonial consent is given when a man and a woman manifest the will to give
themselves to each other irrevocably in order to live a covenant of faithful
and fruitful love. Since consent constitutes Matrimony, it is indispensable
and irreplaceable. For a valid marriage, the consent must have as its object
true Matrimony, and be a human act which is conscious and free and not
determined by duress or coercion.
345. What is required when one of the spouses is not a Catholic?
A mixed marriage (between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic) needs for
liceity the permission of ecclesiastical authority. In a case of disparity of
cult (between a Catholic and a non-baptized person) a dispensation is required
for validity. In both cases, it is essential that the spouses do not exclude
the acceptance of the essential ends and properties of marriage. It is also
necessary for the Catholic party to accept the obligation, of which the
non-Catholic party has been advised, to persevere in the faith and to assure
the baptism and Catholic education of their children.
346. What are the effects of the sacrament of Matrimony?
The sacrament of Matrimony establishes a perpetual and exclusive bond between
the spouses. God himself seals the consent of the spouses. Therefore, a
marriage which is ratified and consummated between baptized persons can never
be dissolved. Furthermore, this sacrament bestows upon the spouses the grace
necessary to attain holiness in their married life and to accept responsibly
the gift of children and provide for their education.
347. What sins are gravely opposed to the sacrament of Matrimony?
Adultery and polygamy are opposed to the sacrament of matrimony because they
contradict the equal dignity of man and woman and the unity and exclusivity of
married love. Other sins include the deliberate refusal of one’s procreative
potential which deprives conjugal love of the gift of children and divorce
which goes against the indissolubility of marriage.
348. When does the Church allow the physical separation of spouses?
The Church permits the physical separation of spouses when for serious reasons
their living together becomes practically impossible, even though there may be
hope for their reconciliation. As long as one’s spouse lives, however, one is
not free to contract a new union, except if the marriage be null and be
declared so by ecclesiastical authority.
349. What is the attitude of the Church toward those people who are divorced and then remarried?
The Church, since she is faithful to her Lord, cannot recognize the union of
people who are civilly divorced and remarried. "Whoever divorces his wife and
marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband
and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mark 10:11-12). The Church
manifests an attentive solicitude toward such people and encourages them to a
life of faith, prayer, works of charity and the Christian education of their
children. However, they cannot receive sacramental absolution, take Holy
Communion, or exercise certain ecclesial responsibilities as long as their
situation, which objectively contravenes God's law, persists.
DIVORCE
(## 2382-2386 below taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church)
2382 The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who
willed that marriage be indissoluble. He abrogates the accommodations that had
slipped into the old Law.
Between the baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved
by any human power or for any reason other than death."
2383 The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be
legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law.
If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal
rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be
tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense.
2384 Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break
the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other
till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which
sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is
recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried
spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:
If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an
adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives
with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself.
2385 Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family
and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to
children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between
them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on
society.
2386 It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce
decreed by civil law; this spouse, therefore, has not contravened the moral
law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely
tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned,
and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage.
DIVORCED PERSONS WHO HAVE REMARRIED CIVILLY
(#84 below taken from Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris
Consortio)
84. Daily experience unfortunately shows that people who have obtained a
divorce usually intend to enter into a new union, obviously not with a
Catholic religious ceremony. Since this is an evil that, like the others, is
affecting more and more Catholics as well, the problem must be faced with
resolution and without delay...The Church, which was set up to lead to
salvation all people and especially the baptized, cannot abandon to their own
devices those who have been previously bound by sacramental marriage and who
have attempted a second marriage. The Church will, therefore, make untiring
efforts to put at their disposal her means of salvation.
...There is in fact a difference between those who have sincerely tried to
save their first marriage and have been unjustly abandoned and those who
through their own grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid marriage.
Finally, there are those who have entered into a second union for the sake of
the children's upbringing, and who are sometimes subjectively certain in
conscience that their previous and irreparably destroyed marriage had never
been valid.
[Those who are divorced and civilly remarried must not] consider themselves as
separated from the Church, for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must,
share in her life. They should be encouraged to listen to the word of God, to
attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to
works of charity and to community efforts in favor of justice, to bring up
their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of
penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace. Let the Church pray for
them, encourage them and show herself a merciful mother, and thus sustain them
in faith and hope.
However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred
Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have
remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their
state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between
Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist.
Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were
admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion
regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.
Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the
Eucharist can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the
sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to
undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the
indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious
reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman
cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they "take on themselves the duty
to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to
married couples."
THE FAMILY AS DOMESTIC CHURCH
350. Why is the Christian family called a domestic church?
The Christian family is called the domestic church because the family
manifests and lives out the communal and familial nature of the Church as the
family of God. Each family member, in accord with their own role, exercises
the baptismal priesthood and contributes toward making the family a community
of grace and of prayer, a school of human and Christian virtue and the place
where the faith is first proclaimed to children.
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