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Jessica
Just Said Yes October 2020

Catholic ceremony

Jessica, on April 9, 2020 at 4:05 PM Posted in Wedding Ceremony 0 10

My fiance and I have been having a lot of trouble getting a clear answer on this. I was raised Catholic and received all of my sacraments to date. Since becoming an adult I have never registered with a parish although I have attended Mass off and on at local parishes to wherever I was living. My fiance was raised Hindu and is not religious. We are planning to have a Hindu ceremony with his family in India after our US wedding. My parents and all of my siblings are still pretty religious and attend church regularly. I am trying to find out if it is at all possible to have a Catholic priest in good standing with the church from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia officiate our wedding at our wedding venue and not in a Church. I have received information from one priest who said no (no further explanation - still waiting on a call back), one priest who said yes, and another who said it depends on the diocese. If anyone has experience with this in the past year please let me know as this is starting to really drive me crazy and create a lot of anxiety for everyone in my family!

10 Comments

Latest activity by Nicole, on April 12, 2020 at 8:15 PM
  • Sarah
    Master September 2019
    Sarah ·
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    It depends on the diocese, but I honestly can’t imagine a diocese approving a dispensation for someone who doesn’t regularly attend/isn’t a member of the church.
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  • M
    Savvy 0000
    Madalena ·
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    I'm pretty sure the answer is no. A priest would probably come and do a blessing, but the rite of marriage needs to he done in a Church.
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  • LB
    Champion November 2016
    LB ·
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    I've seen this question a lot of here and have rarely seen a Catholic priest able to marry someone outside of the church
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  • V
    Veronica ·
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    The closest thing I have seen approved is a dispensation of canonical form, which allows the Catholic person to marry in the non-Catholic person's church/ceremony while still being considered validly married by the church/not requiring a convalidation. However, this requires that the legal ceremony take place in the other person's place of worship, and you still need to submit a request to your bishop, which will require a parish priest to help you, most likely.

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  • Natalie
    Super November 2020
    Natalie ·
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    I believe to get married by a Catholic priest, your FH would have to be baptized and receive all sacraments leading up to holy matrimony, and the actual ceremony would be required to take place in the church building.
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  • Cortney
    Devoted August 2020
    Cortney ·
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    May depend on the diocese or parish, but here’s some information directly from documents our church gave us. Not sure about getting married by a priest outside the church. Also check out http://www.catholicweddinghelp.com/index.htm
    Catholic ceremony 1
    Catholic ceremony 2




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  • Cortney
    Devoted August 2020
    Cortney ·
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    Also I recommend as a bride registering with the parish you will get married in ASAP. While you will still need to get records of your sacraments from prior parishes, it should skip the step where you have to get proof of your eligibility to marry from the parish you’re registered in. I had to do that as I was registered for the first time at a parish (not where we will get married) when I became a Godmother in the Catholic Church.
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  • J
    Master 0000
    Judith ·
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    The church will not perform many marriages outside the church, ( at noon virus times), but allows a little discretion to priests. And some priests not assigned to a parish, like academic priests, and retired ones, are more likely. But I am not Christian. Husband was raised Catholic. And we did not want a Catholic marriage. But his parents wanted it. So we solved our problem by having their priest explain that the Catholic Church does not recognize marriage between a Catholic and a Non- Christian as a sacramental marriage, and will not do one. Though some individual priests, outside of the church, will do a legal marriage, without religious sacrament, often as part of an interfaith marriage. You can have some traditional Catholic prayers and hymns. But not either a mass, or the acceptance of the church h, unless your FI at least takes classes in church doctrine, and becomes a baptised Christian, whether or not he is Catholic.
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  • L
    Super October 2020
    Leslie ·
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    I got married in a Lutheran church first time and my ex was catholic I. He wanted a catholic priest. We found one that I think was about to retire, made a donation to him, and he came to the wedding and didn’t officially marry us. Because you’re marrying outside of Christianity I think it will be challenging. Especially if you need to do any premarriage counseling. Best of luck.

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  • Nicole
    Dedicated September 2020
    Nicole ·
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    We were told the one of us had to be an active member of the church (which my FH is). I've actually been taking confirmation (I was confirmed Lutheran) classes to convert and be accepted in to the church. This whole COVID thing put a damper on that this last few weeks. And if you want a Catholic priest to preside over your wedding it HAS to be IN a church.

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