Marriage in the Roman Catholic Church is the “covenant by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring and which has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.”

There are requirements of the intended spouses prior to marriage in order to ensure a licit or valid sacramental marriage.  The four elements are:
1. The spouses are free to marry.
2. They freely exchange their consent.
3. In consenting to marry, they have intention to marry for life, to be faithful to one another and to be open to children.
4. Their consent is given in the Canonical Form: in the presence of two witnesses and before a properly authorized church minister (ordained priest or deacon).

In addition to these four requirements, the church also goes deeper into the spouses’ status of their freedom to marry through the examination of potential impediments.  Examples of impediments are:
– A prior bond or marriage.
– Disparity of Cult: one party is not baptized in the Trinitarian sense (the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit) and immersed in water.

While some impediments will not ultimately prevent a sacramental marriage, the church requires that these impediments are assessed and treated in the most appropriate way to meet the expectations that the church’s Canon Law requires.
This brings us to the subject of marriage preparation or Pre-Cana. The church expects the parties to commit about 12 months for marriage preparation. Not only is this time spent assessing that the parties are free to marry, but this time is also viewed as prayerful discernment together, to fully understand the sanctity of the commitment to a faithful and faith-filled marriage.