Calling all Catholics and Christians

Do you think your church will even allow him to be married in a catholic church if he isn't catholic?

I think calling the church is the first thing to do, as you said. Some churches may not want to marry you and may see it as disrespectful that he wants to cut the ceremony in half. A few churches in my area will not even marry you unless you are both catholic. Sorry I'm of no help!

Thank you!

I will be having a Catholic ceremony. We were told by our church we need our 3 sacraments, baptism, first communion and confirmation. I have not done my confirmation but am in the process of doing so right now. But I should tell you that I have heard from other churches that I don’t need to be confirmed to get married in a Catholic Church. I guess it depends on the church. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much!

I am Catholic and my fiance is not and we are getting married in a Catholic Church. There 3 different types of ceremonies that can be held depending on the couple's situation: Both practicing Catholics, One Catholic and one baptized Christian, and one Catholic and one un-baptized person.Start with contacting your church so you can get started on your marriage preparation and they will explain what you can/cannot do depending on your situation.Even if you were both Catholic, you certainly don't have to have a full mass. The ceremony will instead be 30-45 minutes and will include processional, some readings/songs/blessings/homily(sermon) etc. like a typical mass, all the marriage stuff, and then you leave.

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Thank you so much! This helps a lot!

My cousin married a Catholic girl and he didn't convert prior to the wedding. However he had to sign a paper that they would raise their children Catholic. They did do the traditional mass for their ceremony, and needed permission from his wife's "home" church to get married in the church where they did marry. I would call your local church to see what the protocols are for your archdioceses.

I'm Catholic and my FH is non-denominational Christian. Based on what I've seen, as long as one of you is Catholic & the other is a baptized Christian there shouldn't be an issue, but I would check with the church to double check. My FH has no current plans to convert, the only thing, kind of like what someone else said, was that he did have to agree that I would raise our children Catholic & that he essentially just couldn't get in the way of that - he doesn't have to help, he just can't hinder. Each catholic diocese & church has their own rules about the process before marriage. We had to meet with a priest to get "approved", fill out a form, take the FOCUS questionnaire, attend a premarital counseling session to go over the FOCUS thing, go to a weekend retreat & send our baptismal certificates to the church. Because FH and none of his family is Catholic, we won't be doing mass, and basically the only difference is that they don't have communion (or do any of the stuff leading up to communion), our ceremony will be 30-45 minutes. I honestly don't think you'll be able to find a priest that will cut it down anymore than that, just because the point of a Catholic wedding is that it is the sacrament of marriage so the readings and everything are important then too.

These days, you have to promise to do all in your power to raise the children as Catholic. He has to be informed of your promise, but doesn't have to make such a promise himself. And the church recognizes that if he is insistent on raising them in a non-Catholic religion (or with no religion), you may have to give up on raising them as Catholic for the sake of the greater good of keeping peace in the family.

However, please don't say, "I am Catholic, my fiance is Christian." Catholics are also Christian. He may be Protestant as opposed to Catholic, but you are both Christian.

Hi Gina! Welcome to WeddingWire and congrats on your engagement! You received some great feedback here. I am sure after speaking with your church you will have a better idea of how you can both proceed with your wedding plans! How many people would you be looking to invite to your wedding day?

To my understanding, he needs to be Catholic to be married in a Catholic wedding.

No idea about this buuut I live in Columbus too!

I had a friend get married 1.5 years ago. Her husband is catholic, i am not sure if she was baptized or not. But they just needed to attend the pre-Cana classes at the church, which i think was required for all couples.

Omgoodness, I am with your FH. Catholic ceremonies take foreveeerrrrr. We are having a Christian ceremony and it will be half hour MAX.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for pointing out the whole Catholics are Christians thing. I can’t beluebe it took as long in this thread as it did! I was raised Catholic and am now agnostic, but this remains a huge pet peeve of mine. I feel the OP should know the difference if she’s truly Catholic. *scratching head*

To the OP...the best thing to do is to contact the priest who will be marrying you. Some priests are a bit more lenient/informal these days, so it really varies. (For example, some priests will marry you outside of the actual church building whereas others will not.)

I'm marrying a (Ukrainian) Catholic and I'm a baptized Mormon. We just had to fill out "interfaith marriage" paperwork....yes I know it's not really an interfaith thing that's just what the papers said!!! Nobody yell at me.

We arent doing a full mass either.

The church probably wont marry you if he doesnt convert. Our cousin had to take classes from the catholic church and convert before they agreed to marry them

I am catholic and my fiancé is Methodist. We are getting married in a Catholic Church. They explained that since this is an “interfaith” marriage we can’t do the full mass (which is fine) but can have the ceremony no problem. They even have pre Cana for interfaith couples.