Portal:Catholicism/Article Archive/June 2007
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In Roman Catholicism, marriage is one of the seven sacraments. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, paragraph 1623, "the spouses as ministers of Christ's grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church." An argument for the institution of the sacrament of Matrimony by Christ himself, and its occasion, is advanced by Bernard Orchard in his article The Betrothal and Marriage of Mary to Joseph[1] In the Eastern Catholic Churches (i.e., non-Latin rite churches in full communion with Rome), "Only those marriages are valid that are celebrated with a sacred rite, in the presence of the local hierarch, local pastor, or a priest who has been given the faculty of blessing the marriage by either of them, and at least two witnesses…. The very intervention of a priest who assists and blesses is regarded as a sacred rite for the present purpose."[2]
Marriage forms the foundation of the family, the fundamental unit of the referring community (ordinarily the parish). The ideal references are found in the Holy Family (Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Saint Joseph, Mary's husband). See related articles of Canon law.[3]
To Catholics, the primary purpose of marriage is to fulfill a vocation in the nature of man and woman, for the procreation and education of children, and to stand as a symbol of the mystical union between Christ and his Church.[4] Fecundity (the ability to reproduce) is good, a gift and a goal of marriage.
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