the Church does in the celebration of a sacrament. Thus a priest can validly confect the Eucharist as long as he intends to do what the Church does, even if he should have doubts regarding the Real Presence or lose his faith in the Real Presence entirely. In cases of emergency anyone, even a nonbeliever, can administer Baptism as long as she intends to do what the Church does when she baptizes.62 It is clear that the Church has established the parameters within which we should discuss the relation between personal faith and the intention necessary to validly administer sacramental marriage: the subjective faith of a couple is not an essential component of matrimonial consent, and a lack of subjective faith can invalidate consent only if it affects the couple's intent to will natural marriage. Willing natural marriage is enough to validly administer the sacrament of Matrimony because marriage unites in a unique way the orders of creation and redemption. The uniqueness of marriage is that Christ "did not institute a completely new liturgical ceremony or give new significance to an existing ritual; he adopted a natural human institution as a sacrament of his Church."63 Marriage, in fact, is a created reality, always bearing some reference to God, but never a merely "secular reality."64 Therefore, by willing natural marriage, which is willing marriage according to God's design, the baptized couple shows obedience to God's will and intends what God and the Church intend marriage to be, evidencing at least implicit faith, as John Paul II noted in FC §68. This intention is enough for the couple to administer the sacrament of Marriage and for the sacrament to be effected ex opere operato.

The Centrality of the Baptismal Character

That the sacrament of Marriage is administered validly and works ex opere operato, even when a couple's subjective faith is minimal or even non-existent, is due first and foremost to their baptismal dignity and character as Christian spouses. It is the baptism of the spouses that "is the criterion for the essential distinction between sacramental and non-sacramental Marriage."65 This means that any two validly

62 See Catechism of the Catholic Church [hereafter, CCC], 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000), §1256.63 Coleman O'Neill, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, rev. ed. (New York: Alba House, 1991), 235.64 Elliott, What God Has Joined, 10-11.65 Ibid., xvi.

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An Examination of the Role of Faith in Matrimonial Consent and the Consequences for the Sacrament of Marriage

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