Objectives of Session 4 – Matrimonial Consent
and Indissolubility
1) To recognize
what is required for valid marital consent
2) To
appreciate the four “marriage scenarios”
3) To understand
why all marriages are intrinsically indissoluble although some are extrinsically
dissoluble
4) To be
able to explain the difference between an annulment and a divorce
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Adult
Faith Formation:
Marriage,
In Scripture and in the Church
Session
4 – Matrimonial Consent and Indissolubility
I. Outline
of Sessions:
1. May 1 – Introduction to
marriage, in nature and in the Church
2. May 8 – Marriage and family
life
3. May 22 – Marriage in
Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New
4. May 29 – Matrimonial Consent
and Indissolubility
5. June 5 – Celibacy and Marriage
6. June 12 – Modern objections to
the Church’s teaching, Review
II. Matrimonial
Consent
A. Consent makes the marriage
B. In what the consent consists: mutual,
external, present
C. Consent and consummation
III. The
four “marriage scenarios”
A. Two non-baptized persons
B. A baptized person and a
non-baptized person
C. Two baptized persons, ratified
but not consummated
D. Two baptized persons, ratified
and consummated
E. Consideration of each of these
in relation to validity, sacramentality, indissolubility
IV. Ways
in which a marriage can be dissolved
A. Pauline Privilege, two
non-baptized persons (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:12-15)
B. Petrine Privilege, a baptized
person and a non-baptized person
C. Papal dissolution, ratified
but not consummated marriage of two baptized persons
D. Intrinsic and extrinsic (in)dissolubility
V.
Annulments
A. Not dissolving a marriage, but
recognizing invalidity (not a ruling about sacramentality)
B. The question of legitimacy and
illegitimacy of children
I. The matter of matrimony
The matter of this sacrament is the
consent of the man and of the woman.
II. The
form of matrimony
The form is the words by which this
consent is expressed, externally and in the present tense.
III.
Matrimonial consent
Consent for marriage can only be given
by those who are free to do so. They are free who are not impeded by natural or
ecclesiastical law, and who are not being forced to marry under some
constraint.
It is this consent which “makes the
marriage”. It must be mutual, external and present. Which is to say, both must
make and receive the consent. This consent must be expressed by external acts.
This consent must not be conditional or future (“I will marry you in two years”
or “… if you do this”, etc).
According to the current law of the
Church, for those baptized Catholic, this consent must be given according to
canonical form – generally, according to the rites and norms of the Church, and
received by a representative of the Church (usually, a priest or deacon). This
binds for the validity of the
sacrament.
However, it was not always the case
that canonical form was required for validity – and this is something that
could change. At the time of its
institution as a sacrament, a couple did not need to express consent before the
Church in order to contract a valid marriage.
[discussion]
IV.
Consummation of marriage
After the exchange of consent, the
marriage is consummated upon the exercise of the rights of marriage in the
marital act of sexual relations. Although the marriage itself consists in the
consent, the bond is solidified in such a manner by consummation that a
marriage ratified and consummated between two baptized persons can never be
broken by any power.
[Brief discussion of ratum non consummatum. ]
Although
the exercise of marital relations does bring the gift of grace, we do not say
that this is the “sacrament” – the sacrament is the consent, and the bond that
the consent establishes.
