Marriage
Religious Studies A: AQA GCSE Religions, topic 3.2.6
Marriage
In the Catholic Church, marriage is a sacrament, a moment when those getting married are given special grace to help them fulfil their commitment.
Nuptial mass
- If marriages take place during Mass, this is called a Nuptial Mass.
Importance of vows
- The main part of the ceremony is the exchange of vows where the couple promise to remain faithful to each other for life:
- ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ [Matthew 19:5 NIV]
Features of the ceremony
- The priest and congregation act as witnesses to this commitment.
- The priest blesses the marriage on behalf of God and the Church.
- The couple also commits themselves to accept children and to raise them according to the ‘law of Christ and his Church’.
- Catholics believe that God is also present when two people marry and that the Church blesses the union on God’s behalf.
Marriage and Catholic Life
For Catholics, marriage is said to be unitive and procreative: it unites the couple in a loving bond and provides a situation where children can be born and raised.
Marriage quote
- ‘The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole life, is by its nature ordered towards the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of their offspring.’ [CCC 1601]
Heterosexual
- In Catholicism, marriage is only possible between a man and a woman.
Lifelong commitment
- It is also a lifelong commitment. Catholics do not allow divorce.
- In some circumstances, marriages can be annulled (declared invalid) if at the time of the marriage one party did not enter into the commitment freely, or for some reason was not mature enough or in a state to make such a commitment.
Celibacy
- Catholics believe that some people are called by God to live celibate lives (abstaining from marriage and sexual relations), sometimes as priests or as monks or nuns.
Other denominations
- Marriage ceremonies form part of the practice of many other Christian denominations, but most of them do not consider marriage to be a sacrament.
Test yourself on Marriage
What do we call a Mass that involves a marriage ceremony?
What is the main part of the Catholic marriage sacrament?
What does it mean to live a celibate life?
How do most other Christian denominations view marriage?
For what reasons could a Catholic marriage be annulled?