Section — Merkelbach, Pastoral Questions
§ 1. Concerning the Matter, Form, and Minister of the Sacrament of Matrimony
- I. In this sacrament the matter and form do not differ from the matter and form of the matrimonial contract, since the contract itself has been raised by Christ to the supernatural dignity of a sacrament.
- II. The remote matter of the sacrament in matrimony is the persons contracting, or the mutual right over the body of the other in order to generation.
For in any contract, the remote matter is called the thing concerning which stipulation is made. But in the matrimonial contract a pact is made concerning the mutual right over bodies in order to generation.
- The proximate matter is the signs or words insofar as they express the reciprocal handing over of the right over bodies.
Thus the opinion far more common. For in every contract the proximate matter is the handing over of the thing.
- III. The form is the mutual acceptance of this handing over, outwardly manifested. It is the common and certain opinion. In the matrimonial contract, as in other contracts, the acceptance of the thing handed over is considered as form.
- IV. The minister of the sacrament of matrimony.
Melchior Cano, O.P., the famous theologian, taught that the priest is the minister of the sacrament of matrimony; that the words, I join you, are the form; but that the matter is the mutual consent of the contracting parties.1
1 De locis theologicis, book 8, ch. 5, in solution to 3.
And although many and great theologians have defended the opinion of Cano, nevertheless today it is commonly admitted that the contracting parties themselves are the ministers of the sacrament. And in fact it is certain that the marriages of baptized persons can sometimes be celebrated validly and even licitly without the intervention of a priest, and that such matrimony is a true sacrament.
Therefore not the priest, but the contracting parties themselves, are the ministers of this sacrament.