Below is the transcript of the interview conducted with Fr. Brendan, the priest at Aquinas House, the Catholic Student Center at Dartmouth.  Fr. Brendan offered excellent insights into the role of religion in marriage, as he elucidated how the Catholic Church defines and views marriage as a sacred covenant between a man and woman.

[Lauren]: First, can you define what marriage means to you?

[Fr. Brendan]: Well, first of all I am a Roman Catholic priest, and I’m a religious.  So, for me, the Catholic definition of marriage is very much my personal understanding of marriage as well.  So, we believe that a Catholic marriage is a union between a man and a woman for the good of the couple, and what we mean by good there is love – that the couple loves each other – and also God-willing for procreation, for children, so there’s that dual aspect of marriage.  But also, marriage is a covenant.  It is a covenant between the man and the woman who make their vows in the Catholic Church before God but also before other people.  The other thing that is very interesting in Catholic marriage is that is it not the priest that marries the couple; it is the couple that marries themselves with the vows that they exchange.  So, it is them that bring about the sacrament with the vows that they share.  And so, with that, marriage is exclusive, we believe, between those two people.  It is permanent, until death do they part, as we say.  And that also there is a legal or contractual arrangement as well, that marriage is also a contract between the couple, that they will care for each other and that they also will behave in a certain way towards each other as well.  So, there is both a sacramental and legal marriage as well.

[Lauren]: Can you explain the rationale behind clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church?

[Fr. Brendan]: Sure. Clerical celibacy is a discipline whereby a man does not engage in any type of sexual behavior, both for the kingdom of God and to become closer with Jesus, and also to unite be able to serve and not be bound by any familial obligations.  Not that those are bad, but here we are talking about distinct vocations: the priesthood versus the married life or the single life.  The thing to understand is that within the Roman Catholic Church, it is a discipline, so it is something that could be changed; the pope as well as the College of Cardinals in their prudence and through the Holy Spirit could decide that that could change.  So, it’s a discipline.  In my case, I am a religious priest, so I have vows just like a married couple does.  But a secular priest doesn’t make those promises.

[Lauren]: Just out of curiosity, do you think that’s something that could change in the future?

[Fr. Brendan]: It could.  Right now, there are former Episcopalian priests that are now Catholics, and they’ve been allowed to continue to be married.  So, there are options for that, but right now, I can’t say that anything is imminent.  But it could be discussed and changed.

[Lauren]: Do you see yourself as “married to the church”?

[Fr. Brendan]: To a degree, but not in the same manner.  That’s a tough question and something I really would need to think about.  Of course we believe that for Jesus, the church is often referred to as the “bride,” and I believe that I’ve certainly dedicated my life to serve for God and for the church, and also to other people.  But I think it’s a lot more nuanced.  Personally, that’s not an image that resonates very strongly with me. I just see marriage as being a different vocation.

[Lauren]: How do you view gender roles in marriage? How does the Catholic church define the roles of a man and woman in marriage?

[Fr. Brendan]: I think it’s really important that first we believe that both man and woman – all of us – are created in God’s image and likeness. It’s from that understanding that flows all of our theology about the human person but also about marriage as well.  Man and woman are equal partners, but just like anything else, in marriage as well there has to be a give and take as well.  I think that those roles in some ways have to be defined by the individual couples as well. And I wouldn’t say that there’s necessarily one role defined for the man and woman, but there has to be some sort of reciprocity and complementarity that depends on those two people.  One of the beauties of marriage is that that marriage covenant is the path to holiness.  So I think in many ways it really is up to the couple, and much of this is cultural – different cultures have different understandings of the roles that people have.  Other parts of the world don’t think of marriage in the way that we do in the United States.  And that’s one of the things within the Catholic church – there’s over a billion Catholics all over the world, so when we talk about marriage it’s not about how we understand it in the United States.  There are some cultural differences that can be added to the ritual, but the liturgy is always the same.  The sacrament of marriage must remain the same, but of course within different cultures, they have different traditions and customs that can sometimes be incorporated into the liturgy.  For example, in Mexico and other countries, the priest or family member ties the arms of the man and woman together, indicating that they’re together.  So there’s different customs like that.  In some villages in Germany, it’s customary that after the wedding, the couple would saw a tree together to symbolize that they’re working together.  So, different things can be brought in while the sacrament itself remains the same.

[Lauren]: Can you explain what an annulment is?

[Fr. Brendan]: Yes, even though we still use the term annulment a lot, the term being used now is nullity of marriage. When a couple is married, it’s assumed that the marriage is valid and that they’ve met all the criteria for being married in the church.  For example, they have to be free to marry – can’t have any previous bonds (married before, priest), and then they have to understand the goods of marriage, the love between the two spouses, and also God-willing, that they’d be open to children.  They also have to understand the faithful nature of marriage.  For the marriage to be made null, what the church does – and there’s a court within the church, very similar to a legal court – they basically look at what were the factors leading up to that marriage that may have played a role in one or both of the parties not being able to give consent to that.  So, if someone came into the marriage not wanting to have children or not having intention to be faithful, then that would be grounds for a nullity of marriage.  Other issues could be physical ones; in the Catholic church, marriage has to be consummated, and both parties have to be able to willing to engage in sexual intercourse.  The couple also has to be of the right mindset; if there were issues pertaining to substance abuse or psychological issues that would preclude someone from really being able to give consent, then that also could be something that might make the marriage null as well.  So, there’s a lot of different factors; immaturity is another one, or someone being forced into marriage.  It’s a long process, and they’re trying to expedite it a little bit.  So nullity of marriage is saying that the marriage never really took place in the first place, and there was something that happened prior to being marriage that really precluded them from entering the marriage covenant.

[Lauren]: Can a priest deny marriage to somebody if they think any of those factors are evident?

[Fr. Brendan]: A priest really can’t deny the sacrament if the two people coming to him wanting it and are asking to be married.  Hopefully, a lot of things would come out in the preparation process for marriage.  So if you notice something, that’s something you would discuss with the couple.  During the process, you speak individually with each of the parties, and those are some of the questions you ask them (Are you being coerced? Are you free?).