catholic question - can someone answer for me?

[Grumpy's Gal]

Can a catholic person marry a non-catholic person in a cataholic church WITHOUT a priest? Can they have a reverand from the non-catholic perosn's church marry them?

Can anyone tell me? I'm trying to help a young lady friend of ours plan a wedding.

 

[CJBaby]

Can a catholic person marry a non-catholic person in a cataholic church WITHOUT a priest? Can they have a reverand from the non-catholic perosn's church marry them?

Can anyone tell me? I'm trying to help a young lady friend of ours plan a wedding.

I am 99.9% sure that a priest has to preside at a Catholic's church wedding.

 

[rgf207]

I am catholic and I married my wife who is not catholic in a catholic church. Her pastor was present buy my priest gave the ceremony.

I am fairly certain that you cannot marry in a catholic church without a catholic priest present

 

[diznygirl]

I am catholic and I married my wife who is not catholic in a catholic church. Her pastor was present buy my priest gave the ceremony.

I am fairly certain that you cannot marry in a catholic church without a catholic priest present

Yes, the priest has to perform the ceremony but the other minister can be present.

HOWEVER, she will have to talk to the pastor of that church. If she gets an old-fashioned grumpy one, she might not be given much flexibility.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

sorry no, Catholic Church = priest. The Non-Catholic may be able to be married by the priest if the Catholic partner confirms their dedication to the Catholic faith. Through your pastor, you will have to obtain a dispensation from your bishop to marry a non-Catholic. You both must be free to enter into a valid marriage (e.g., capable of consummating the marriage; not divorced and attempting to "re-marry" without first having obtained a Decree of Nullity; acknowledging the permanence of marriage until death; etc.). This marraige will be the full Catholic Marraige. If your parish does not agree, (some older Priests will give them a hard time), call and find a parish that will and change parishes. You also need permission for this. While writing this I know understand why so many people are leaving the church. Its really tough!

Good luck to your friend.

 

[Crankyshank]

No they can't. The reverend can co-officiate, a Catholic priest from another parish can officiate, but you can't have a wedding in a Catholic church without involvement by Catholic clergy.

Why would someone want to be married in a Catholic church but not have a Catholic ceremony?

 

[NotUrsula]

Just to add, sometimes the dispensation for marrying a non-Catholic can be avoided if you have a marriage service, rather than a Nuptial Mass. I did this, and did not have to get a dispensation. DH is a baptized Lutheran.

The marriage service is shorter, and does not include Communion. It's not a well-known option, but it's out there.

 

[mickeyboat]

Just to add, sometimes the dispensation for marrying a non-Catholic can be avoided if you have a marriage service, rather than a Nuptial Mass. I did this, and did not have to get a dispensation. DH is a baptized Lutheran.

The marriage service is shorter, and does not include Communion. It's not a well-known option, but it's out there.

I did this, too.

 

[Mkrop]

No they can't. The reverend can co-officiate, a Catholic priest from another parish can officiate, but you can't have a wedding in a Catholic church without involvement by Catholic clergy.

Why would someone want to be married in a Catholic church but not have a Catholic ceremony?

This was exactly the question I was going to ask. I mean my godfather is a Catholic priest who recieved permission to marry us in my church but if my godfather had been a Lutheran minister or something, I may have asked for him to have a speical role but I would not have asked him to officiate. Just like I wouldnt drag my priest into another denomination's church and ask him to marry me there.

 

[golfgal]

If the church has a Deacon often they are more open to having a minister present in a mixed-faith union. It really is up to the pastor of the church whether they allow this or not.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can a catholic person marry a non-catholic person in a cataholic church WITHOUT a priest? Can they have a reverand from the non-catholic perosn's church marry them?

Can anyone tell me? I'm trying to help a young lady friend of ours plan a wedding.

The short answer is 100% no.

Tell your friend to get married in the church with her reverend.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

The Preist of the Church have a great deal of leyway on what happens . They could go as far as allowing what you ask to not allowing the Non-catholic at all. and you will find different answers at churches right close to each other.

Me ( always Catholic) and DW ( Converted when we were dating) were not allowed to get married in our church because we were living together . So we went about 10 blocks away and got married in another Church with no problem.

When we did our renewal at the 5 year mark we did it in our church as the new preist had way different views of things then the other one.

 

[lg3]

I know this isn't the exact question you asked, but I (a non-Catholic) married dh (a Catholic) by a member of the White Robed Monks of St. Benedict. Weird but true: We couldn't get married in a Catholic church because I had been married before to a Catholic for just a few months many years earlier, and we could not find a record of my ex-husbands baptismal records from a very old church in Boston. DH's church said if I COULD have found the record we could have gotten married there. After much research we found the organization and had a Father fly in to officiate at our wedding. They were absolutely wonderful and his family was pleased. In case your friend can use them this is their web site:
http://www.wrmosb.org/wed.html

 

[ducklite]

Just to add, sometimes the dispensation for marrying a non-Catholic can be avoided if you have a marriage service, rather than a Nuptial Mass. I did this, and did not have to get a dispensation. DH is a baptized Lutheran.

The marriage service is shorter, and does not include Communion. It's not a well-known option, but it's out there.

We did this and we are both Catholic. It was just the type of ceremony we prefered for a number of reasons, none of them to be taken as a slight on the Church.

We also weren't required to participate in pre-Cana.

 

[iggbees]

my catholic friend got married in a unitarian church since his wife was not catholic. she said the ceremony was beautiful. i'm pretty sure that's what i'm going to do since my boyfriend is not catholic either (he's presbyterian, but doesn't practice). i don't practice catholicism though, so it's not really important for me what kind of church we get married in.

 

[lulu71]

We also weren't required to participate in pre-Cana.

Wow, that alone is worth it. I wish I had known about this before we endured pre-Cana.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Just to add, sometimes the dispensation for marrying a non-Catholic can be avoided if you have a marriage service, rather than a Nuptial Mass. I did this, and did not have to get a dispensation. DH is a baptized Lutheran.

The marriage service is shorter, and does not include Communion. It's not a well-known option, but it's out there.

I've been to two or three weddings like this.

 

[ducklite]

Wow, that alone is worth it. I wish I had known about this before we endured pre-Cana.

I don't think it was because we weren't having a full mass. I think it's because we were in our mid-30's and had been together for almost five years. Our priest just wanted us to get married already.

 

[johnsontrio]

If I remember correctly this is how we handled our wedding. My family was Methodist but because I attended a Catholic Prep school, I was very comfortable with the Catholic faith. My husband was a cradle Catholic and when we married I was in the middle of the RCIA program.

Since the bride's family traditionally hosts the wedding so to speak and since I felt that marrying in my family's church represented my heritage, we married in the Methodist Church. Our wedding was presided over by a Methodist Bishop and a Catholic Deacon who is a family friend of DH. We did complete Pre Cana classes and I believe that we were given a dispensation for Absence of Form.

This paperwork ensures that our marriage is recognized by the Catholic Church. This is the same dispensation you would need if you married somewhere other than a Catholic Church, DW for example, or any outdoor location. I would think in both of those examples you would need a Priest or a Deacon to perform the ceremony and might have a hard time finding one that would agree to do it.

There are plenty of exceptions to the rules and plenty of dispensations to address all of them.

 

[golfgal]

Wow, that alone is worth it. I wish I had known about this before we endured pre-Cana.

Ok, I know that pre-Cana is really not that much fun but it does serve a purpose. I was SHOCKED at the number of couples in our class that had not talked about anything like if they wanted kids or not. We had one couple in our class decide in the class to call off their wedding.

I remember one 'test' question was 'do you have enough insurance'. I remember DH and I laughing about that but now 18 years later, it is a REALLY important question and yes, we have enough insurance.