Matrimony, or marriage, is the only sacrament that lay people can administer—except for Baptism, in emergencies—and routinely do so. Normally the presence of a priest or deacon is required for marriage, but he is not technically administering the sacrament.
“In the Latin Church, it is ordinarily understood that the spouses, as ministers of Christ’s grace, mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church,” according to Section 1623 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The priest or deacon serves as the Church’s official witness and otherwise fosters the sanctity of the ceremony, but it is the couple who are ministers of the sacrament. The bride and groom marry each other.
In addition to serving as the Church’s official witness, the priest makes possible the richer experience of the Sacrament of Matrimony. Normally, in the Latin Rite, the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful takes place during Mass “because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ,” according to the Catechism, section 1621.
Through the celebration of the Mass, “the memorial of the New Covenant is realized.” The Catechism continues—that “New Covenant in which Christ has united himself forever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up.” So it is fitting that the spouses “seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church.”
