📖Overview

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring. This covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church and gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ loved His Church. The essential properties of marriage are unity (between one man and one woman) and indissolubility (the marriage bond cannot be dissolved). The consent of the spouses, expressed before the Church, is the indispensable element that "makes the marriage." Without valid consent, there is no marriage. The spouses themselves, not the priest, are the ministers of Christ's grace; they confer the sacrament on each other by expressing their consent before the Church. A valid sacramental marriage between two baptized persons that has been consummated cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death. The grace of the sacrament strengthens the spouses in their love, helps them bear one another's weaknesses, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life. The family, founded on marriage, is the "domestic church," the primary cell of society where the faith is first lived and transmitted.

💡Key Points