The Christian Family is the first place of Education in prayer. Based on the Sacrament of Marriage, the family is the "domestic Church" where God's children learn to pray "as the Church" and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit.

Everyone, man and Woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of Marriage and the flourishing of Family life. the harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.

Some forgo Marriage in order to care for their parents or brothers and sisters, to give Themselves more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends. They can contribute greatly to the good of the human Family.

Through the Grace of the Sacrament of Marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the "first heralds" for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. 34 A wholesome Family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.

The political commUnity has a duty to honor the Family, to assist it, and to ensure especially: - the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own moral and religious convictions; - the protection of the stability of the Marriage bond and the institution of the family; - the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary means and institutions; - the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate; - in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits; - the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.; - the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority. 15

The importance of the Family for the life and well-being of society 13 entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen Marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity." 14

A man and a Woman united in Marriage, together with their children, form a Family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.

The conjugal commUnity is established upon the consent of the Spouses. Marriage and the Family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and Education of children. the Love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.

This commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled. It introduces the subsequent commandments which are concerned with particular respect for life, Marriage, earthly goods, and speech. It constitutes one of the foundations of the social doctrine of the Church.

Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their Marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of sacrifice.

The fruitfulness of Conjugal Love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that parents hand on to their children by Education. Parents are the principal and first educators of their children. 162 In this sense the fundamental task of Marriage and Family is to be at the service of life. 163

"By its very nature the institution of Marriage and married Love is ordered to the procreation and Education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory." 160

Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal Dignity though in a different way. the Union of man and Woman in Marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and Fecundity: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." 120 All human generations proceed from this union. 121

Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in Fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for Marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married Love. They will help each other grow in chastity.

Some today claim a "right to a Trial Marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and Fidelity in a relationship between a man and a Woman, nor, especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim." 183 Carnal Union is morally legitimate only when a definitive commUnity of life between a man and woman has been established. Human Love does not tolerate "trial Marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another. 184

Incest designates intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits Marriage between them. 180 St. Paul stigmatizes this especially grave offense: "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you . . . for a man is living with his father's wife.... In the name of the Lord Jesus ... you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh...." 181 Incest corrupts Family relationships and marks a regression toward animality.

It can happen that one of the Spouses is the innocent victim of a Divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be Faithful to the Sacrament of Marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage. 178

Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the Spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the Covenant of salvation, of which Sacramental Marriage is the sign. Contracting a new Union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent Adultery:

The separation of Spouses while maintaining the Marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law. 176 If civil Divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense.

The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that Marriage be indissoluble. 173 He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law. 174 Between the Baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death." 175

Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the Covenant which the Marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on which it is based. He compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who need their parents' stable Union.

A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. the "supreme gift of Marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the Conjugal Love of his parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception." 169

Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by Marriage. They betray the Spouses' "right to become a father and a mother only through each other." 166

Fecundity is a gift, an end of Marriage, for Conjugal Love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual Love of the Spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which "is on the side of life" 150 teaches that "each and every marriage act must remain open 'per se' to the transmission of life." 151 "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act." 152

The Spouses' Union achieves the twofold end of Marriage: the good of the spouses Themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple's spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the Family. The Conjugal Love of man and Woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of Fidelity and Fecundity.

"The acts in Marriage by which the intimate and chaste Union of the Spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude." 144 Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure:

Sexuality is ordered to the Conjugal Love of man and Woman. In Marriage the physical intimacy of the Spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual commUnion. Marriage bonds between Baptized persons are sanctified by the Sacrament.

By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the Faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." 137 "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of Marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true Love is achieved." 138 To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that lessen or even extenuate moral culpability.

Today there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have recourse to civil Divorce and contract new civil Unions. In Fidelity to the words of Jesus Christ - "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits Adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" 158 The Church maintains that a new union cannot be recognized as valid, if the first Marriage was. If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find Themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this situation persists. For the same reason, they cannot exercise certain ecclesial responsibilities. Reconciliation through the Sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete continence.

Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes practically impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the Church permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart. the Spouses do not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to contract a new Union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be, if possible, reconciliation. the Christian commUnity is called to help these persons live out their situation in a Christian manner and in Fidelity to their Marriage bond which remains indissoluble. 157

"Inasmuch as it is a Sacramental action of sanctification, the liturgical celebration of Marriage . . . must be, per se, valid, worthy, and fruitful." 123 It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare Themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of penance.

In the Latin Rite the celebration of Marriage between two Catholic Faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the Sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ. 120 In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beLoved bride for whom he gave himself up. 121 It is therefore fitting that the Spouses should seal their consent to give Themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ. 122

Both the Sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of God come from the Lord himself. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them the Grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his will. 117 Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom 118 and the Christian understanding of Marriage are inseparable, and they reinforce each other:

Virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is an unfolding of baptismal Grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and of the ardent expectation of his return, a sign which also recalls that Marriage is a reality of this present age which is passing away. 116

Christ is the center of all Christian life. the bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social. 113 From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of Marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming. 114 Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model:

The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal Love of Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath 111 which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian Marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the Sacrament of the Covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies and communicates Grace, marriage between Baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant. 112

This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the Marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on Spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses. 108 By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and Grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing Themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ. 109 This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life.

On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign - at his mother's request - during a wedding feast. 105 The Church attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of Marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence.

Seeing God's Covenant with Israel in the image of exclusive and Faithful married Love, the prophets prepared the Chosen People's conscience for a deepened understanding of the Unity and Indissolubility of Marriage. 102 The books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of Marriage and to the Fidelity and tenderness of Spouses. Tradition has always seen in the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, a pure reflection of God's love - a love "strong as death" that "many waters cannot quench." 103

Moral conscience concerning the Unity and Indissolubility of Marriage developed under the pedagogy of the old law. In the Old Testament the Polygamy of patriarchs and kings is not yet explicitly rejected. Nevertheless, the law given to Moses aims at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by the husband, even though according to the Lord's words it still carries traces of man's "hardness of heart" which was the reason Moses permitted men to Divorce their wives. 101

In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. the punishments consequent upon sin, "pain in childbearing" and toil "in the sweat of your brow," 100 also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin. After the fall, Marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving.

"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." 87 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. Although the Dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, 88 some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial Union exists in all cultures. "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." 89

Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and Woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding-feast of the Lamb." 85 Scripture speaks throughout of Marriage and its "mystery," its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church. 86

Deacons share in Christ's mission and Grace in a special way. 55 The Sacrament of Holy Orders marks them with an imprint (“character") which cannot be removed and which configures them to Christ, who made himself the "deacon" or servant of all. 56 Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy CommUnion, in assisting at and blessing Marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating Themselves to the various ministries of charity. 57

First Holy CommUnion. Having become a child of God clothed with the wedding garment, the neophyte is admitted "to the Marriage supper of the Lamb" 44 and receives the food of the new life, the body and blood of Christ. the Eastern Churches maintain a lively awareness of the Unity of Christian initiation by giving Holy Communion to all the newly Baptized and confirmed, even little children, recalling the Lord's words: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them." 45 The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who have attained the age of reason, expresses the orientation of Baptism to the Eucharist by having the newly baptized child brought to the altar for the praying of the Our Father.

In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of the Church. the images taken from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: the People of God. In the New Testament, all these images find a new center because Christ has become the head of this people, which henceforth is his Body. 144 Around this center are grouped images taken "from the life of the shepherd or from cultivation of the land, from the art of building or from Family life and Marriage." 145

In the Latin Church, it is ordinarily understood that 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 Eastern liturgies the minister of this sacrament (which is called "Crowning") is the priest or bishop who, after receiving the mutual consent of the spouses, successively crowns the bridegroom and the bride as a sign of the Marriage Covenant.

The parties to a Marriage Covenant are a Baptized man and Woman, free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free" means: - not being under constraint; - not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law.

The Church holds the exchange of consent between the Spouses to be the indispensable element that "makes the Marriage." 125 If consent is lacking there is no marriage.

The deepest reason is found in the Fidelity of God to his Covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the Sacrament of Matrimony the Spouses are enabled to represent this fidelity and witness to it. Through the sacrament, the Indissolubility of Marriage receives a new and deeper meaning.

By its very nature Conjugal Love requires the inviolable Fidelity of the Spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of Themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement "until further notice." the "intimate Union of Marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children, demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between them." 155

"The Unity of Marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal Dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved affection." 153 Polygamy is contrary to Conjugal Love which is undivided and exclusive. 154

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." 151 They "are called to grow continually in their commUnion through day-to-day Fidelity to their Marriage promise of total mutual self-giving." 152 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.

Thus the Marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between Baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the Spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a Covenant guaranteed by God's Fidelity. the Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom. 144

"From a valid Marriage arises a bond between the Spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the Dignity of their state by a special Sacrament." 140

In Marriages with disparity of cult the Catholic spouse has a particular task: "For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband." 138 It is a great joy for the Christian spouse and for the Church if this "consecration" should lead to the free conversion of the other spouse to the Christian faith. 139 Sincere married Love, the humble and patient practice of the Family virtues, and perseverance in prayer can prepare the non-believing spouse to accept the Grace of conversion.

Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed Marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couple's obligations to each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encourage the flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates them.

According to the law in force in the Latin Church, a mixed Marriage needs for liceity the express permission of ecclesiastical authority. 135 In case of disparity of cult an express dispensation from this impediment is required for the validity of the marriage. 136 This permission or dispensation presupposes that both parties know and do not exclude the essential ends and properties of marriage and the obligations assumed by the Catholic party concerning the baptism and Education of the children in the Catholic Church. 137

The consent must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties, free of coercion or grave external fear. 128 No human power can substitute for this consent. 129 If this freedom is lacking the Marriage is invalid.

For this reason (or for other reasons that render the Marriage null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed. 130 In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous Union are discharged. 131

The priest (or deacon) who assists at the celebration of a Marriage receives the consent of the Spouses in the name of the Church and gives the blessing of the Church. the presence of the Church's minister (and also of the witnesses) visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an ecclesial reality.

Man and Woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a Communion of Persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In Marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", 245 they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." 246 By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as Spouses and parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's work. 247

This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the Faithful contract Marriage according to the ecclesiastical form. Several reasons converge to explain this requirement: 132 - Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act. It is therefore appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church; - Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and creates rights and duties in the Church between the Spouses and towards their children; - Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty about it is necessary (hence the obligation to have witnesses); - the public character of the consent protects the "I do" once given and helps the spouses remain faithful to it.

So that the "I do" of the Spouses may be a free and responsible act and so that the Marriage Covenant may have solid and lasting human and Christian foundations, preparation for marriage is of prime importance.

In many countries the situation of a mixed Marriage (marriage between a Catholic and a Baptized non-Catholic) often arises. It requires particular attention on the part of couples and their pastors. A case of marriage with disparity of cult (between a Catholic and a nonbaptized person) requires even greater circumspection.

Difference of confession between the Spouses does not constitute an insurmountable obstacle for Marriage, when they succeed in placing in common what they have received from their respective communities, and learn from each other the way in which each lives in Fidelity to Christ. But the difficulties of mixed marriages must not be underestimated. They arise from the fact that the separation of Christians has not yet been overcome. the spouses risk experiencing the tragedy of Christian disUnity even in the heart of their own home. Disparity of cult can further aggravate these difficulties. Differences about faith and the very notion of marriage, but also different religious mentalities, can become sources of tension in marriage, especially as regards the Education of children. the temptation to religious indifference can then arise.

"The matrimonial Covenant, by which a man and a Woman establish between Themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the Spouses and the procreation and Education of offspring; this covenant between Baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the Dignity of a Sacrament." 84