Ottmar Fuchs INTAMS review | Volume 15 | Issue 1 | Spring 2009 | Pages 44 > 50 The Spiritual and Pastoral Meaning of the Marital Rite (Summary) The Christian marriage rite possesses a definite meaning that needs to be made clear both theologically and pastorally. Since marriage is considered by Catholics to be a sacrament, this suggests a theological interpretation that radically emphasizes God’s grace in the rite. Such an interpretation then makes possible a new pastoral relationship to those who "only" request the ecclesiastical sacraments while otherwise keeping their distance from the church as a social reality. For all who participate in it, whether distanced from the church or remaining near, the sacrament of marriage is to be understood pastorally not as a condition-filled requirement, but primarily as a place where the unconditional grace of God may be grasped in God’s promise to support, to develop, and to enable the covenant of marriage. This view has clear implications both for the spirituality of the married couple and for the spirituality of those who perform the church’s pastoral rites. Ottmar Fuchs, born in Mittelfranken, Bavaria in Germany, studied theology in Bamberg and Würzburg; ordained a priest in 1972, he became a chaplain in a parish in Nürnberg and worked subsequently as a pastor in the university parish in Bamberg; he obtained his PhD and Habilitation in pastoral theology at the Theology Faculty in Würzburg; in 1981 he became professor of pastoral theology at the Faculty of Theology in Bamberg and since 1998 he is professor of practical theology at the Catholic Faculty of Theology of the University of Tübingen. His most recent book publications include: God's People: Instruments of Healing. The Diaconical Dimension of the Church, Bern/New York 1993; Im Brennpunkt: Stigma. Gezeichnete brauchen Beistand, Frankfurt a. M. 1993; Denn für Gott ist nichts unmöglich. Erkundungen im Glauben, Würzburg 1998; Praktische Hermeneutik der Heiligen Schrift, Stuttgart 2004; Das Jüngste Gericht. Hoffnung auf Gerechtigkeit, Regensburg 2007.