Article III: On the Minister of the Sacrament

S. Th., Suppl. q. 44, a. 1 and 2; q. 45, a. 5.

789. Thesis. The ministers of matrimony are the contracting parties themselves, and indeed not only under the aspect of the contract, but also under the aspect of the sacrament. - It is today the common and certain opinion, against Melchior Cano and those who said that the priest is the minister of the sacrament; and it follows immediately from the doctrine of the preceding article.

It is proved: 1° Directly. If the contract of matrimony itself is the sacrament and does not really differ from it, it must be that those who make the contract are also the ministers of the sacrament; but these are the contracting parties.

2° Indirectly, from the doctrine and practice of the Church.

It is clear: a) because clandestine marriages of the faithful before the Council of Trent, and even now in certain circumstances (can. 1098-99), are held as true sacraments;

b) because for the validity of matrimony the presence of the parish priest suffices, nor is it required that he pronounce some form of words; whence documents call him a witness of matrimony, not the minister of the sacrament;

c) from the unanimous opinion of the ancient scholastics through almost five centuries, even to the times of Melchior Cano.

They object: A minister confers the sacrament in the place and name of Christ. But the contracting parties neither act nor speak in the name of Christ; he does not receive the wife as his own.

Resp. They do not speak in the name of Christ insofar as they make a contract, I concede; insofar as by making the contract they unite themselves with a sacred bond and grace, I deny. For as instruments of Christ they render the natural bond sacred and confer grace upon themselves.

790. Corollaries. - From this it follows:

1° In the sacrament of matrimony the minister confecting and the subject receiving do not differ.

2° Nevertheless the contracting parties are not ministers insofar as they are the subject; indeed, nor under every respect under which they are contracting parties. For insofar as they hand over to the co-party power over their own body, they place the matter of the sacrament and are not ministers; but only insofar as by accepting they hold ratified the donation made by the co-party do they place the form and perfect the bond of obligation. Thus they are ministers, because it belongs to the minister to join matter to form; and they are ministers of Christ, because in the matrimony of the faithful Christ principally sanctions and seals the obligation of the conjugal bond.

3° Hence, in order that they validly enter matrimony, the contracting parties must, besides the fact that they are able in law, impeded by no diriment impediment, have at least a virtual intention of contracting or of doing what others do when marrying, in which there is implicitly contained the intention of doing what the Church does; moreover, in order that matrimony be a sacrament, they must be baptized.

4° In order that the faithful also contract licitly, there is required the absence of every prohibition or impedient impediment, and the state of grace, because matrimony is a sacrament of the living. But if they knowingly contract in the state of sin, they sin by sacrilege, and indeed mortally insofar as they receive the sacrament unworthily; but insofar as they unworthily minister to themselves, although they sin, nevertheless it is not proved that they sin mortally, because they are not ministers constituted from office (n. 76-77).

791. Observation. - "The words by which matrimonial consent is expressed are the form of this sacrament, but not the blessing of the priest, which is a certain sacramental," says St. Thomas, q. 42, a. 1, ad 1. Whence the priest is called the minister of solemnity, not of celebration or confection; but if he says that he joins the spouses, it is to be understood of ratification, or of conjunction before the face of the Church.