Matrimony

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” (Matthew 19:3-6)

God is the author of marriage.  The matrimonial covenant by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership for the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. Marriage is a liturgical act, appropriately held in a public liturgy by the church.  By their marriage, the couple witnesses Christ’s spousal love for the Church.   Unity, permanent lifelong commitment, and openness to having and caring for children are essential to marriage. (Excerpted from United States Catholic Catechism for Adults)