Why are non-Catholic marriages valid?

[chasingcars]

I’ve been thinking about this for some time now. The Catholic Church’s (and Eastern Orthodox) teaching of marriage is very unique and no other religion or even a Christian denomination fully shares it. So why does the Church consider marriages of Protestants and other non-Catholics as valid?

I know that if a Catholic marries outside the Church, for example in a civil seremony or in a mosque, the marriage is invalid but if a non-Catholic does the same thing, his/her marriage is valid. I find it very confusing.

Some people might argue that since the Catholic Church considers non-Catholic baptisms as valid, the Church should consider their marriages valid as well. But if I’ve understood it right, the reason why Protestant baptisisms are considered valid is that Protestants and the Catholic Church share the same teaching about it. However, the Catholic teaching and Protestant teaching about marriage are very different so it doesn’t seem logical to me that Protestant marriages are considered valid and even sacramental. And since Protestant eucharist, confirmation and priesthood aren’t valid, it makes me wonder that what is the thing that makes their marriages valid. I’d also like to know that is it possible that the Church would change her teaching so that only Catholic marriages would be considered valid?

As you can see I’m very confused and I’d be thankful if I got an answer for this question. Thank you in advance.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

The two things that make a marriage valid are consent and law.

The Church teaches that unlike Eucharist or Confirmation were the minister of the sacrament is a priest or bishop, the minister of marriage is the couple. The spouses mutually confer upon each other the marriage bond by expressing their consent. The essential requirement for a valid marriage is the exchange of consent to a life-long, faithful, life giving relationship. Baptism is not required to be able to exchange this consent, thus even two non-baptized persons can be validly married (though it is a natural rather than sacramental marriage).

The second aspect is law. The Church has the authority to regulate marriage. At this time the Church only has laws that regulate how Catholics attempt marriage, therefore non-Catholics only have to have the right intentions (consent) to enter into marriage, they have no form to follow. The Church has requirements for Catholics because the Church wants to ensure as much as She can that Catholics properly understand and appreciate the sacrament of marriage. A Catholic could validly marry a non-Catholic or non-Christian outside of the Church (e.g. in a mosque), he or she just needs to receive a dispensation from Church law to do so.