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What is marriage?

In order to understand the work of the Tribunal, it is necessary to understand what the
Catholic Church teaches about marriage. The Catholic Church bases her teachings on
what God has made known to us through Jesus His divine Son. The teachings of Jesus
are found in the Gospels.

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to
divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said,
"Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and put her away." But Jesus
said to them, "For your hardness of heart (Moses) wrote you this commandment. But
from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a
man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one.' So they are no longer two but one. What there- fore God has joined
together, let no man put asunder." And in the house the disciples asked him again
about this matter. And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries
another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries
another, she commits adultery." (Gospel of Mark 10: 11 -12, RSV)

On the basis of these and other Scriptural passages (see also Mt. 19: 3-11; Lk. 16.18;
Mt.5.32; 1 Cor. 7.10-11; Malachi 2) the Church teaches that marriage was intended
by God, from "the beginning" of the human race to be a permanent bond. This teaching
on marriage applies to all human beings, not only Christians or Catholics.

The Second Vatican Council also taught: The well-being of the individual person and
of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of
conjugal and family life ...The intimate partnership of life and love which constitutes the
married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own
proper laws,. it is rooted in the covenant of its partners, that is, in their irrevocable
personal consent. (from "The Church in the Modern World," 47 & 48)

The teachings of the Catholic Church are expressed in her laws. The Code of Canon
law is a collection of the laws of the Catholic Church. The laws of the Church also
teach that it is the consent of the parties that makes the marriage. An English translation
of one of these canons reads as follows:

"Canon 1057 §l. Matrimony is brought about through the consent of the parties,
legitimately manifested between persons who are capable according to law of giving
consent; no human power can replace this consent. §2. Matrimonial consent is an act
of the will by which a man and a woman, through an irrevocable covenant, mutually
give and accept each other in order to establish marriage."

All marriages are begun by an act of irrevocable personal consent. Thus, the marriages
of those who are not Catholics or those who are not baptized are also considered true
marriages if they begin with true matrimonial consent. Catholics must follow the laws of
the Catholic Church to legitimately manifest their consent. Others need only exchange
consent in a way that is naturally valid. In general, any marriage ceremony recognized
by the state, regardless of whether it was held in a Church or elsewhere, gives rise to
the presumption that the man and woman are validly married.

An analogy may be helpful to understand what is meant by a valid marriage. The state
also has requirements for a valid marriage. For example, the man and woman must
have obtained a valid marriage license, the marriage must be witnessed by one who
has the authority to witness marriages (a priest, minister, rabbi, judge, etc.) and the
man and woman must be legally free to marry. If any essential element were missing at
the time of the marriage, the state does not recognize it as a marriage, even if this was
only discovered years later. While the requirements of the Church are different than
those of the state, there are requirements for a valid marriage. back