Parishioners wishing to be take the Sacrament of Marriage at St. Paul Catholic Church will need to contact the Parish office 916-381-5200 at least six months before the planned ceremony for additional information and to register for the Marriage Preparation Program. Review the Marriage Preparation Brochure and Application Form under the "documents" module in the left margin of this page.

Couples must have completed our Marriage Preparation Program before the Sacrament of marriage can be administered. The Marriage Preparation Program (UNITAS) is a program conducted by trained parishioners of St. Paul. Learn more by clicking on UNITAS in the "Links" module in the lower right margin of this page. . Please call the rectory office at 916-381-5200 to register or for more information.

Catholic teaching holds that sacraments bring grace to those who receive them with the proper disposition. Grace is a way of describing how God shares the divine life with us and gives us the help we need to live as followers of Christ. In marriage, the grace of this sacrament brings to the spouses the particular help they need to be faithful and to be good parents. It also helps a couple to serve others beyond their immediate family and to show the community that a loving and lasting marriage is both desirable and possible.

Pope Paul VI wrote: “By it [the Sacrament of Matrimony] husband and wife are strengthened and…consecrated for the faithful accomplishment of their proper duties, for the carrying out of their proper vocation even to perfection, and the Christian witness which is proper to them before the whole world” (Humanae Vitae, n. 25).