Are a man and a woman really essential to marriage?
What about the child - and the role of mothers and fathers?
Is it discriminatory to defend marriage as the union of one man and one woman?
What impact does the redefinition of marriage have on religious liberty?
These are just a few of the many questions about marriage today.
They all hinge upon the first question: What is Marriage?
When the answer to this question is understood, everything else falls into its proper place.
Marriage is a lifelong, faithful partnership between a man and a woman. It is ordered toward (made for) the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children (see Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], no. 1601). The bond of marriage is indissoluble – it lasts “until death do us part.” Love itself is “to will the good of another” (CCC, no. 1766). At the heart of married love is the total gift of self that husband and wife freely offer to each other, becoming “one flesh” and being open to children, “who are a living reflection of their love” (Familiaris Consortio, no. 14).
Marriage in the Church (between a baptized man and a baptized woman) has been raised to a Sacrament by Jesus Christ. By this sacrament, Jesus gives to spouses the grace they need to love each other. Their relationship is “caught up into divine love” and “governed and enriched by Christ’s redeeming power and the saving activity of the Church” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 48).