What Makes A Valid Catholic Marriage?

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Fieryjades

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I’m curious as to what makes a valid Catholic marriage. Please provide canon law, Catechism, or any other reliable source…thanks!
 
Here you go, from the USCCB (the U.S. Bishops)
Just as individual states have certain requirements for civil marriage (e.g., a marriage license, blood tests), the Catholic Church also has requirements before Catholics can be considered validly married in the eyes of the Church. A valid Catholic marriage results from four elements: (1) the spouses are free to marry; (2) they freely exchange their consent; (3) in consenting to marry, they have the intention to marry for life, to be faithful to one another and be open to children; and (4) their consent is given in the presence of two witnesses and before a properly authorized Church minister. Exceptions to the last requirement must be approved by church authority.
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Thank you! If the man and woman are ministers of the sacrament, why the need for priests?
 
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Fieryjades:
why the need for priests?
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Last time I checked a Deacon can preform a marriage.
 
1623 According to Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ’s grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses,124 but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary.125

1630 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.

1631 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:[132]
  • 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.
1632 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 and 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,[133] and much more so in our era when many young people experience broken homes which no longer sufficiently assure this initiation:
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 role 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.[134]
 
Thank you that was most helpful.

I’m currently working on the “open to children” part with my gf.
 
So therefore, we can conclude that a “marriage” without a priest/deacon or two witness cannot claim to validity or be within the Church, correct? Does anyone know any canon law to support this?
 
Link to Latin Rite Canon Law on marriage (canons 1055-1165).

In particular:
Canon 1108 §1 Only those marriages are valid which are contracted in the presence of the local Ordinary or parish priest or of the priest or deacon delegated by either of them, who, in the presence of two witnesses, assists, in accordance however with the rules set out in the following canons, and without prejudice to the exceptions mentioned in cann. 144, 1112 §1, 1116 and 1127 §§2 - 3.
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§2 Only that person who, being present, asks the contracting parties to manifest their consent and in the name of the Church receives it, is understood to assist at a marriage.
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Is there any difference of marriage celebration between Rites? Is what’s true in the Latin Rite differ in the Roman Rite?

Thank you for all your responses and information.
 
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Fieryjades:
Is there any difference of marriage celebration between Rites? Is what’s true in the Latin Rite differ in the Roman Rite?
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The Latin Rite and the Roman Rite are the same thing. The other rites are collectively called the Eastern Rites.

Marriage in the Eastern Rites is very different than marriage in the Latin (or Roman) Rite. For one thing, the priest is the minister of the sacrament in the Eastern Rites.
 
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Fieryjades:
How can one make an invalid marriage convalidated?
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The couple just has to arrange it with their priest. If the couple is newly married, they may have to take Pre-Cana classes, etc.
 
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