As for the Churches teaching on Marriage, when two baptized people marry, they are who preforms the sacrament. In the Catholic Church the Priest or Deacon represents the Church to wittness and bless the union, but it is the couple who preform the Sacrament, and Jesus who offers the Graces of any Sacrament. Unless the vows are changed to say something like “As long as we love each other.” or “until we find someone else” If both parties are baptized, and married in their Church, we have no reason to believe that they are not married.
Hello LA Robert,
I agree with you on your first point, however, Your opinion on Sacramental marriage is Not Roman Catholic teaching, in fact its more protestant. The Church cannot deny to marry any man and woman who are baptized.
Any marriage outside the Catholic Church is non-Sacramental, the Protestants Reformation made it a “Civil Ceremony’ (Matin Luther). You see, in the Protestant Faiths a divorce is simply a civil action, whereas in the Catholic Faith we look upon it as a spiritual disunion as well as physical, What God joins cannot be separated the two become one flesh… So the Catholic seeks to find how, where and why the union is failing or failed, and tries to show each partner where and when they began to ‘fall apart’ to possibly bring them back together. The Annulment process helps each party see for themselves what faults lie in each party, that led to the separation. And until such process is completed both parties are deemed married.
So marriage outside of the Catholic Church is not Sacramental, its a Civil Ceremony.
Luther theology:
by 1521 he was arguing that there should be no priests
By Faith alone, individuals are justified, are made able to meet God’s justice, Good works, penances, priests, the whole system , all of it was irrelevant.
Everyone was a priest; any Christian could perform the rites of the faith, and beyond these no Christian held any special religious station.
He rejected penance, extreme unction, confirmation was reduced to a rite, he only kept baptism, and Communion but as consubstantian, he did not believe that at the raising of the Eucharist during Consecration
was changed, he did believe in Christ presence in essence in the bread and wine.
It’s because of those changes as catholics we do not participate in other religious rituals. Personally I’ve been there, I use to think a Church is a Church is a Church! Eventually through study and devotion I had to stop this participation, I began to feel that my presence in these other religions rituals were saying It’s okay! And that is the wrong message.
CCC #1603 “The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage.” The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. …
1622 “Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the liturgical celebration of marriage . . . must be, per se, valid, worthy, and fruitful.” It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare themselves [for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of penance.
1623 According to Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ’s grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses, but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary
1644 “The love of the spouses requires, of its very nature, the unity and indissolubility of the spouses’ community of persons, which embraces their entire life: “so they are no longer two, but one flesh. They “are called to grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving.” This human communion is confirmed, purified, and completed by communion in Jesus Christ, given through the sacrament of Matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the common faith and by the Eucharist received together.
God bless,
john