Why are marriages contracted outside of the Church invalid?

[anjoh66]

I would like to turn the question to another angle.
How come if two unbaptized persons marry civil the church recognize this as a marriage.

Later maybe one of them wanna be catholic and marry a catholic spouse, (after a civil divorce of course) then this will be a problem because the church recognises the first civil wedding as valid.

But if one of them, the first marriage, was baptised then it is not valid.

Why not count all marriages outside the church as non sacramental and non valid?

 

[Just_Lurking]

Why not count all marriages outside the church as non sacramental and non valid?

If both of the parties are unbaptized, then the Church has no authority over the natural law governing the marriage, so the marriage will be valid but not sacramental.

If at least one of the parties is baptized, then what you have suggested was actually proposed to the pontifical code commission that updated the canon law to produce the 1983 code. After consideration, it was rejected because it would turn all Protestants who marry in their own church into unmarried fornicators.

 

[anjoh66]

If both of the parties are unbaptized, then the Church has no authority over the natural law governing the marriage, so the marriage will be valid but not sacramental.

If at least one of the parties is baptized, then what you have suggested was actually proposed to the pontifical code commission that updated the canon law to produce the 1983 code. After consideration, it was rejected because it would turn all Protestants who marry in their own church into unmarried fornicators.

Yes I agree with the marriage of protestants.
The marriage of non baptised is more problematic, as a civil marriage is not a sacrament and can never be until they get baptized, so why should a marriage count as valid then?

It could be legaly valid but why in the eyes of the church?

This creates problems for people who had a previous marriage like that, maybe because of ignorance, and later wanna be catholics and marry a catholic spouse, then this creates a big obstacle.

 

[Just_Lurking]

The marriage of non baptised is more problematic, as a civil marriage is not a sacrament and can never be until they get baptized, so why should a marriage count as valid then?

It could be legaly valid but why in the eyes of the church?

God established marriage beginning with Adam and Eve. In the Old Testament, people married validly but non-sacramentally according to God 's design. There isn’t anything the Catholic Church can do to change that now.

This creates problems for people who had a previous marriage like that, maybe because of ignorance, and later wanna be catholics and marry a catholic spouse, then this creates a big obstacle.

The Pauline privilege is available in this case, even when the marriage was valid and so cannot be annulled.

 

[anjoh66]

God established marriage beginning with Adam and Eve. In the Old Testament, people married validly but non-sacramentally according to God 's design. There isn’t anything the Catholic Church can do to change that now.

The Pauline privilege is available in this case, even when the marriage was valid and so cannot be annulled.

Yes that is true.