If two Catholics are married by a priest (but not in a Catholic church), can we still get our marriage blessed? Also, can we get our children baptized?

-- Noelle B. (buoncristi@yahoo.com), September 30, 2004

Answers

If you mean married by a Catholic priest, but not inside a church building, then your marriage is valid and does not need to be "blessed". Permission should be sought to have a wedding somewhere other than in a church, and failure to obtain such permission may result in an illicit wedding ceremony, meaning it does not follow the rules set down by the Church, but it does not invalidate the marriage. If you are planning a wedding as Catholics however, it only makes sense to follow the rules of the Church, rather than intentionally disobeying valid Church authority while receiving a sacrament of the Church.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), September 30, 2004.

A question:

If it's allowed for catholics to marry outside a church , why most of them only marry in a church-building or a chapel ??

Salut & Cheers from a NON BELIEVER:

-- Laurent LUG (.@...), October 01, 2004.

(1) Because marriage is a sacrament of the Church, and the church is the proper setting for sacramental rites whenever possible.

(2) Because Canon Law dictates that weddings take place in the parish church of one of the parties. It requires special permission of the local bishop to have a wedding in a different Catholic church, or in a place other than a Catholic Church. Many bishops do not grant such dispensations readily.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 01, 2004.

Many bishops do not grant such dispensations readily

Weird , I don't get it !!

Salut & Cheers from a NON BELIEVER:

-- Laurent LUG (.@...), October 01, 2004.

It was very easy for 2 of my family members to get married in a baptist church and in a presbyterian church. ? (one family member wasn't even a practicing Catholic) ? The Bishop probably wasn't aware of all of that. Who knows.

-- Faith (fgcc4@yahoo.com), October 02, 2004.

Are your family members Catholic? Were they married before a Catholic priest? If they are Catholic and were not married before a Catholic priest, then it is really not true that it was "easy for them to get married" in a Protestant Church, because they are in fact not married.

-- Paul m. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 02, 2004.

Unless you later seek an annullment. At that point you are considered married until they hear the case and decide otherwise....

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), October 02, 2004.

A Protestant couple are assumed to be validly married until there is reason to find otherwise. A Catholic "married" in a Protestant or civil service is never assumed to be validly married. They are invalidly married, which is to say unmarried, de facto, and should not receive the sacraments of the Church until their marital situation is resolved.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 02, 2004.

Both were baptized & raised Catholic...
Now one is a practicing Catholic the other is not. And they did have a priest at the Presbyterian church and I believe a deacon at the Baptist church. (I didn't attend the Baptist wedding, but did know that it wasn't a priest.)
It was easy for them to get a dispensation to get married in a church other than a Catholic Church.

-- Faith (fgcc4@yahoo.com), October 02, 2004.