The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 222: Matrimonial Consent (2025)

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

Matrimonial consent is an indispensable element of the Sacrament of Marriage. Fr. Mike explains why it is essential for those entering marriage to express their consent freely and why in the Church’s eyes, “if consent is lacking, there is no marriage.” Fr. Mike also guides us through the Church’s teaching on annulment and clarifies why it can be complex. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1625-1632. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 22. We are reading paragraphs 1625 to 1632. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism

into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CI. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications because today is day 22 and 22, that is three twos right in a row. Reading paragraphs 16, 25 to 1632, we talked about the celebration of marriage. We talked about the virginity for the sake of the kingdom, that reality. We also, part of that celebration of marriage, we have the matrimonial consent, which is pretty much essential. When I say pretty much essential, it's essential.

When it comes to entering into the covenant of marriage, there has to be this consent. And also that consent has to be a certain kind. It has to be free, being not under constraint and not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law. We're going to talk about that as well as just kind of some nuts and bolts when it comes to the sacrament of matrimony from paragraph 1625 to 1632. So in order to like launch in, let's launch in to prayer as we pray. Father in heaven, you are good and you are God.

You are the Lord of life. You're the Lord of love. We continue to praise your name. We continue to thank you for this gift of holy matrimony. We thank you for the gift of faithfulness. We thank you for even the fact that when we're unfaithful, you remain faithful. Lord God, we thank you for mercy. mercy that comes to meet us in our weakness. We thank you for forgiveness that comes to us in our

failures. We thank you for never ceasing to call us to be more and more like you and for giving us the grace to be like you. We ask you to please help us to serve you, to love you, to honor you this day. Whatever state in life we find ourselves, we give you our yes. And that yes is in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is Day 200. in 22, we're reading paragraphs 1625 to 1632. Matrimonial consent. 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. If consent is lacking, there is no marriage. The consent consists in a human act by which the partners mutually give themselves to each other. I take you to be my wife. I take you to be my husband. This consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfillment in the two becoming one flesh. The consent must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties free from coercion or grave external fear. No human power can substitute for this consent. 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, that is, that the marriage never existed. In this case, the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged. 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. 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. 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. The example in teaching given by parents and families remain the special form of this

preparation. The role of pastors and of the Christian community as the family of God is indispensable for the transmission of the human and Christian values of marriage and family, and much more so in our era, when many young people experience broken homes which no longer sufficiently assure this initiation. As Gaudi Metspez states, it is imperative to give suitable and timely instruction to young people, above all, in the heart of their own families about the dignity of married love, its rule and its exercise, so that, having learned the value of chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to engage in honorable courtship and enter upon a marriage of their own. All right, there we have in paragraphs 1625 to 1632.

There are quite a few notes that we want to kind of hover over for just one second. So 1625 begins by highlighting the fact that what is marriage? Once again, the parties to marriage covenant are at back. baptized man and a baptized woman. Now, we're going to talk tomorrow about what if you have a baptized person and a non-baptized person? We'll talk about that tomorrow. What if you have a Catholic and someone who's baptized, but not Catholic? Again, talk about all that tomorrow. Goes on. So baptized man and baptized woman, free to contract marriage, which means that there's no impediments there. There's no obligations that they have to something else or someone else that would make them not free to contract

marriage, who then freely express their consent. Now, this word, this phrase, to be free, and that term freedom is going to be very important. And it's going to mean a couple of things. The first thing it means is they're not under any constraint, right? So there's no force, there's no coercion, there's no fear that is working upon them, that's driving them. So shotgun weddings as one example about many, that because of this pregnancy, because of this child in the woman's womb, that out of fear or out of force or out of some kind of

coercion or obligation, the couple is getting married. that could be, could be an impediment. That could be something that a constraint that would be placed upon the couple and where they might not be free to enter into this vocation, again, in a free way. Now, that doesn't automatically make it so. But one of the things, you know, I guess prudentially, there I know a number of pastors will say that if the woman is pregnant, then they'll wait. They'll say, let's wait until after the baby is born.

And then we'll go through the marriage preparation. We'll continue to walk with you right now, but let's not. just jump into marriage because they're the presence of a child. Why? Wouldn't it be better if the child had a mom and a dad? Of course, that's always a good thing. But we want to also make sure that the husband and wife or the man and woman are able to enter into the covenant of matrimony in a free way. So there's no constraint. The other aspect of this is they're not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law. So there are some things that make marriage impossible, some natural things. so one thing that would make marriage impossible is if there were two people of the same sex

that would make marriage impossible that would be a natural law that would prohibit matrimony another thing that would make a natural reality and this is something that maybe a number of people who are listening to this podcast this is part of your experience and part of that pain of life is that one reality could be that a couple is incapable of entering into natural sexual intercourse even once because we recognize that an essential part of marriage, an essential part of the sacrament of holy matrimony. An essential part is the sexual act. Without the sexual act, you might have a great relationship. There might be an incredible love and support. You might have incredible friendship. There might be a depth of love for each

other that is real. And that takes nothing away from this. But the couple must be able to enter into the sexual embrace at least once in order for marriage to be a sacrament. Now, again, this is a painful thing to bring up, but it's important thing to bring up because it's so essential. Marriage, the thing that makes marriage different than any other relationship is the presence of the sexual embrace. That is, in so many ways, the critical peace. We have relationships with a lot of people in the course of our lives. We have parents to children. We have friends. We have brothers. We have sisters. We have so many degrees of relationship. We have deeper friendships. What is the single thing that makes marriage unique? Well, it's not necessarily

permanent because you can have permanent relationships wherever. It's not necessarily love because you can have love amongst any number of different kinds of relationships. The thing that makes marriage distinct is the sexual embrace. And so without that sexual embrace, it is not marriage because that's the aspect of this particular relationship that makes it this particular relationship. And again, that can seem very, very unfair. But let's look at it like this. I remember hearing the analogy of chocolate chip cookies. So in order to have chocolate chip cookies, you need a lot of ingredients, well, a few ingredients, right? You need flour and you need sugar and you need milk and you need eggs. I'm very bad at cooking, but I'm just saying, but one thing you

absolutely need, all those other ingredients, some of them can change the variance of degrees. Some people like to put oatmeal in their chocolate chip cookies. But one thing that's required for cookies to be chocolate chip cookies is the presence of chocolate chips. Now, chocolate chips aren't the only ingredient in chocolate chip cookies, but they're an essential ingredient in chocolate chip cookies in a similar way when it comes to marriage. The sexual embrace is not the only ingredient, but without the sexual embrace, it's not marriage. Without the sexual embrace, it can be, again, a great relationship. It can have permanence.

It can have mutual support and love. They can have all these good things, though without the sexual embrace, that would be an impediment, and they would not be able to go to the right of marriage. So not under constraint and not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law. So another ecclesiastical law would be someone's not free to marry because they have taken vows in holy orders, or a person not be free to marry because they've made some other vow in a religious institution, or they might not be free to marry because they're previously married. So they're already married to someone else. So those are some of the obstacles to freedom. Now, moving on. And again, we've talked about heavy, heavy topics already so far, but we have to move forward.

In 1627, the church holds that the exchange of consent between spouses is indispensable. That's the element that makes the marriage in so many ways. If the consent is lacking, there is no marriage. It goes on to talk about this, that consent is the human act, which partners mutually give themselves to each other. So I take you as my wife. I take you as my husband. That's the consent. So we recognize that at the altar, the sacrament of matriments,

is ratified. It's made real. It's real there. But it's not continated. It's not completed. It doesn't find its fulfillment until the two become one flesh physically in the sexual embrace. So we realize that there are the sacrament of matrimony not only has the baptized man and baptized woman in the presence of the church's minister and the presence of two witnesses at least in a public way. They demonstrate. They make that human act, that consent, that free consent gets ratified there in that moment here at the altar. But it's consummated, it's fulfilled, it's completed in the sexual

embrace. Because at the altar, they say, I'm yours and you're mine. And in the sexual embrace, they live out, I'm yours in your mind. At the altar, the two become one flesh. In the sexual embrace, the two become one flesh, truly. And so this is so, so important. We need both. And that's part of why, you know, chocolate chip cookies are need chocolate chips. Moving on. Paragraph 1628. talks about this, that consent has been an act of the will that's freely given, free of coercion, free of grave external fear, and nothing, no human power can substitute for that kind of consent. Now, some people will say, what about arranged marriages?

That's a great question. Are arranged marriages valid? Well, they can be, but they don't have to be, just like any marriage. Even in an arranged marriage, that couple that would come together for an arranged marriage would have to be free. They'd have to freely enter into and freely offer their consent when it comes to the sacrament of matrimony. Now, if freedom is lacking, the marriage is invalid. If there was an impediment that would prohibit the couple from freely entering into this sacrament of matrimony,

then the marriage is invalid. And for this reason, in paragraph 1629, it talks about this, some other reasons as well, but of that reason, but other reasons, the marriage may be rendered null and void. So what the church does is, it's maybe here's a couple that comes before the church, say, we had gotten married, but we have reason to believe that there was some impediment to our consent. There was some impediment to us being free to be married. And there could be any number of reasons, right? And if after an investigation, the church says, yeah, it looks like that is exactly the case. After interviewing people who know the couple after examining and having the couple, they go through a process, it's called the annulment process or the application for

a declaration of nullity. And so after going through this whole process, it is the case that sometimes the church can say, yes, that is true. There was an impediment to marriage. The marriage was invalid. It never happened in the first place. And sometimes when couples will come and say there's a case for there being an impediment to marriage. And the church investigates it and says, no, we see that there was no impediment to marriage that you freely entered into. This was a valid sacrament. And they remain married, even if they are civilly divorced. Again, we're talking about heavy topics today because again, every one of our lives is touched by betrayal. Every one of our lives is touched by broken hopes. Every one of our lives is touched by broken relationships, including

broken marriages. And so I know that there are people who are listening who have said, yeah, I applied for a declaration of nullity and was refused. My case didn't go through. Others who are afraid to apply for the declaration of nullity. Others who seem like, it seems like an excessive burden to place upon someone. And so they refuse to go through the process. my invitation is here is God who is good. Here's God who knows your story. Here's God who knows your heart. If you're wondering, you know, you've been divorced civilly and you haven't applied for declaration of nullity, my invitation is if you believe that there's a case, if you believe that there is a case to be made that, no, our marriage was not valid. Our marriage, there are or were

at least one thing, if not more than one thing that could be impediments to marriage. Then to talk to your pastor, talk to your priest, and see if he can help you. Now, there is a process and part of the process is, again, talking to your priest, part of your process is going to be contacting your ex-spouse. Part of the process is going to be contacting witnesses and asking them if they are willing to spend their time and remember, yeah, there is a reason that this would be an impediment to their marriage. It's not meant to be burdensome. I mean, it could be. It can be experiences burdensome. Sometimes, you know, I don't I don't know if you know about this, about church tribunals and canon lawyers, oftentimes there are

too few canon lawyers and too many couples who are seeking declarations of nullity. And so sometimes it can take a year or two years to go through the entire process. Now, please don't let that frighten you. The process for applying for a declaration of nullity is meant to be a process of healing. In fact, I have talked to so many couples who have said, yeah, when I sat down to write the autobiography, you know, the story of our relationship and why I believe that we have a case. that there was an impediment, that the marriage, the first marriage was invalid. Like, it was daunting. But the more and more I had to process, the more and more I had to go over the story, the clear

and clear my own heart became to myself. The clearer and clearer, here were our missteps, the clearer and clearer I became to myself. So, yes, it can be a difficult process, but there are some difficult processes that end up in destruction, and there's some difficult processes. that end up in healing. And the process for an application or for the declaration of nullity

is meant to be the process that ends in healing, even if the declaration of nullity is not granted because there can't be demonstrated that there was an impediment. The process is meant to have an opportunity

for self-examination. It's meant to have an opportunity for recognizing, here's what I brought to this relationship, here's how my choices brought us to a certain place. And it's not just meant to beat up oneself

or to accuse oneself, but to go over one's past and just say, okay, I now know myself, and now I know myself even better, in an even better way I can bring myself before God in this new and deeper way. I don't mean to get stuck on this too much, but I know that this is such a pain in so many people's lives. And I know there are people I said, you're going through the catechism in the year, and I'm telling you, I know you're called to be Catholic. And you can say, yeah, but I'm divorced and remarried. I can't be Catholic. And I get it. I get it. but try. Just try to take that step. I know that you won't be sad for trying. You won't

regret trying, but I do wonder, and I do fear that you will regret not trying. So I'll move on to the next part here, but I just wanted to leave you with that note of, you're not alone. You're wanted. And there's healing. There's healing in the future. Moving on, there is a reason why the church normally requires the faithful to get married inside the church in a church building according to the ecclesiastical form, according to the right of marriage. One of those reasons is that marriage is a liturgical act. Therefore, it's appropriate that it should be in the part of the public liturgy of the church. You know, we realize that holy matrimony is a sacrament of service. It's a sacrament of discipleship. just like Holy Orders is the Sacrament of Service.

It's the Sacrament of Discipleship. So here's me. I could say that when I got ordained a priest, you know what? The coolest place for me, like my favorite place in the world is at my parents' place on a lake. And I love that place. It's just, man, if I could go there every week, I would love going there every week. I love that place so much.

It's a place of family, it's place of close friends, a place of so many great memories. And so I could say, hey, Bishop, could I get ordained at my parents' place on the lake? It means a lot to me. and the bishop would have to remind me, and he would rightly remind me that, oh, here's the thing, you're not getting ordained for yourself. You're not getting ordained because this is for you. You're getting ordained because Holy Orders is a sacrament of service in the church. It's a sacrament of discipleship in the church. And this is a day that's not about you. This is a day about the whole church getting a new priest. And I would say something incredibly similar when it comes to the holy

matrimony. I know it's like, it's the bride's day, it's the, you know, a couple's day, and it is in some ways, but it's also not in some ways. For a Catholic couple to enter into the sacrament of matrimony, they're saying, this is the way I believe that Jesus Christ is calling me to serve his church. I believe that this is the way Jesus Christ is calling me to be his disciple. And so this isn't just strictly speaking your day. This is the day for the entire church. This is a day where you're declaring discipleship for the Lord in this particular vocation. So it doesn't make any sense to get married on the beach. It doesn't make sense to get married in the woods. Doesn't make sense to get married at some, you know, strange location. It makes sense

to say, I'm going to get married in the church. Why? Because this is a sacrament of the church. This is me declaring that this marriage, this sacrament to marriage and family, holy matrimony, is the way I believe Jesus is calling me to build up the body of Christ. So it makes again, very little sense, maybe no sense for a Catholic Christian to say, I'm going to get married outside the church or outside the right given to us by the church. Now, tomorrow, once again, we'll talk about the exceptions to this rule because there are a couple exceptions to this rule, but we recognize that when you said yes to your spouse, you're also saying yes to this is how I will serve the church. This is how I will follow Jesus Christ as his disciple.

Okay. I know we talked about a lot of, a lot of stuff today. The last thing here is marriage preparation. The church says super important. Church also says the original marriage preparation is the example in teaching of one's own parents and one's own family and the people around you, people from your parish. That's called the remote preparation for the sacrament of matrimony is, yeah, I learn a lot from watching my parents. This is how marriage works. Either this is how marriage is supposed to work or this is how marriage should never work. Because we're always being formed. We're being formed. We're being formed. by our culture, and we're also always being formed by our families and by our parish by our parents. And so from the earliest age, we're being formed. And that part of that formation, we call that marriage preparation. And then later on, you know, you get into formal preparation. Usually it's at least six months. Sometimes it's up to a year of formal, kind of more approximate or immediate marriage preparation. And that's typically done at the parish by the priest, by the deacon, maybe by a mentor couple of some sort. Okay, you guys, day. A lot of big topics, which are good to talk about. Really good to talk about. Tomorrow we'll

talk about more big topics and the day after that and the day after that because the rest of this catechism, I got to tell you, I don't know if it gets deeper from here, but it kind of gets more personal. We'll say it like that. It doesn't get deeper from here, but it does get more and more personal. So because of that, we're all going to be challenged. And because of that, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.