Marriage, Union, and the Sacred Commitment of Man and Woman

ON THE NATURE OF MARRIAGE AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION

1. Marriage is the ordained union of one man and one woman, committed to each other for life, in faithful, sexually exemplary, and spiritually serious devotion.

2. The modern institution of marriage has deteriorated in practice, primarily due to the decline of masculine and feminine virtue, not due to any error in the term or its traditional designation.

3. The average age of marriage has risen to a degree inconsistent with the youthful and traditional constitution of the institution.

4. Changing the label of the institution without resolving the underlying deterioration of virtue will not improve and will likely worsen the condition.

ON TERMINOLOGY

1. The terms boyfriend and girlfriend are semantically immature and inadequate to describe a serious, sexually earnest, and committed union between a man and woman.

2. The terms man and woman as designations for a romantic partner, while more honest, are too generically related to the plain idea of being a man or woman to serve as reliable distinguishing terms.

3. The terms husband and wife, and the institution of marriage, carry accumulated generational wisdom and remain the most adequate and proper designations.

4. We therefore reclaim and restore the institution of marriage, husband, and wife, in their traditional and proper constitution.

ON THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

1. Marriage is not constituted by a state contract or formal wedding ceremony alone.

2. Marriage is constituted by the earnest and mutual commitment of a man and woman to each other's lasting harmony.

3. We resolve to produce our own marriage contract, which takes effect by the commitment of both parties to it.

4. The moment a man and woman agree to each other in this capacity, they are married by our standard.

ON THE DUTIES AND CONSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE

1. Marriage must be ordered toward the production and raising of children. The intent to have and the actual having of children is an essential part of the institution.

2. The arrangement cannot be solely for the pleasure of the parties.

3. Both parties must be committed to their own masculine or feminine virtue, to the sexual satisfaction of the other, and to the faithful and devoted care of each other and their family.

ON EARNEST UNIONS AND GUIDANCE TOWARD MARRIAGE

1. We hold marriage as the supreme institution and advocate primarily for it.

2. Earnest and committed relationships between a man and woman, including those presently designated as boyfriend and girlfriend, constitute an equal degree of seriousness and commitment to marriage when conducted with full devotion and virtue.

3. Such persons are encouraged and guided toward the formal institution of marriage as husband and wife.

4. This standard extends to persons of any age who are in genuine, earnest, and committed union with one another.

5. We hold marriage supreme, acknowledge equal seriousness in earnest unions, and guide all such persons toward such formality.

ON THE DIVINE ORDINATION OF UNION

1. Marriage is ordained by God, who created humanity male and female according to a supreme plan.

2. God creates persons in male and female pairs in a divinely ordered fashion.

3. Every person is ordained a particular individual with whom their union is inevitable and perfect.

4. When this union is properly and traditionally manifested in masculine and feminine sexual harmony, the two constitute a superior being made in the holy image of God.

The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.

For this reason, a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptized without it being by that fact a sacrament.

The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in Christian marriage obtain a special firmness by reason of the sacrament.