My dear Parishioners,
Peace! A seventh (7th) Commandment of the Church can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, by allusion, in section 1603. The following is a reflection on this seventh commandment which requires us to “observe the laws of the Church on Marriage” which would include one hundred-ten canons of the 1983 Code of Canon Law (c. 1055–1165). This was the sixth Commandment of the Church in the Baltimore Catechism.3 (cf. questions. 1327, 1360–1370). To keep the Commandments of God and the Commandments of the Church show our love for God and neighbor (cf. Luke 10:16; John 14:15; 1 John 4:20). When we keep the Commandments of God and of the Church we bear witness to the fact that we have the mind of Christ and His bride Mother Church (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:16). A resume of six of the Marriage laws of the Church include the following:
The Creator has endowed Marriage with its own proper laws (CCC, 1603). Among these essential laws are unity, indissolubility and fecundity or openness to fertility (CCC, 1664). Marriage is not “whatever we think it is…” God has His normative plan and idea to which we are to submit in obedience. The contraceptive mentality is foreign to the mind of Christ and His bride Mother Church.
The spouses are to be male and female (CCC, 1604–1605, 1614, 1623, 1660). While the fallen world will proclaim the liceity of polyamorous relations or even those of the same sex this too is foreign to the mind of Christ and His bride Mother Church.
The spouses contract an indissoluble bond by their vows of Holy Marriage (CCC, 1615, 1626, 1632). The mentality which would accept wholesale no-fault divorce and remarriage is foreign to the mind of Christ and His bride Mother Church (CCC, 1644–1645). The martyr Saint Thomas More (+1535) is a patron saint of indissolubility, having been beheaded by Henry VIII while encouraging his fidelity.
The spouses contract Holy Marriage according to canonical form (CCC, 1621, 1623, 1631, 1663). The Catechism of the Council of Trent specifies that the vows must be exchanged "in the presence of the parish priest, or of some other priest commissioned by him or by the Ordinary, and that of a certain number of witnesses.”*
The spouses promise that the children will be raised in the Faith (CCC, 1635, 1665). There is no greater treasure which parents can give to their children, after the gift of life, than to bring the children up according to the Gospel. Together with God the parents have cooperated with the transmission of the gift of life. In having the children baptized and raised in the Church the parents likewise collaborate with God in the transmission of the gift of Faith.
Ecumencial and Interreligious Marriage require permission and dispensation respectively (CCC, 1635–1637). An ecumenical Marriage is between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic. An interreligious Marriage is between a Catholic and an unbaptized person.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr