Atheist Friend Asked Me To Be Best Man

[aldentre]

My friend asked me to be best man at his wedding. He and his fiancee are having the ceremony right at the banquet hall instead of a church. It won’t be a religious wedding and the service will be conducted by someone authorized to do so but who isn’t a priest.

Is it wrong for me to say yes? Or is it better for me to take a stand and tell him I can’t be a part of it?

 

[bilop]

My friend asked me to be best man at his wedding. He and his fiancee are having the ceremony right at the banquet hall instead of a church. It won’t be a religious wedding and the service will be conducted by someone authorized to do so but who isn’t a priest.

Is it wrong for me to say yes? Or is it better for me to take a stand and tell him I can’t be a part of it?

Was he ever Catholic? Or Orthodox? How about the bride?

If one or both were, then thye would have an obligation to be married in Church, so I would not participate in a civil ceremony.

But if they were not, a civil ceremony is a valid form of marriage for them, and I see no reason not to participate.

God Bless

 

[dshix]

My friend asked me to be best man at his wedding. He and his fiancee are having the ceremony right at the banquet hall instead of a church. It won’t be a religious wedding and the service will be conducted by someone authorized to do so but who isn’t a priest.

Is it wrong for me to say yes? Or is it better for me to take a stand and tell him I can’t be a part of it?

It not sinful to attend such a wedding, as it classifies as a social obligation.

Also, it would likely do more harm than good to say no, because you would be estranging yourself from your atheist friend unnecessarily.

I suggest you go and do it for your friend, so that you can maintain a strong relationship with which you may hopefully manage to open the doors of truth to him in the future.

 

[EasterJoy]

Unless the bride or groom are baptized in the Catholic Church, and would be contracting an invalid marriage by marrying outside the Church, or one of them has attempted marriage to a Catholic and never had an annulment or something of that nature, then yes, you can normally be the witness for a non-Catholic wedding. Non-Catholics can marry each other, after all! If the Church would see the two as free to marry each other and neither the individuals nor the ceremony is in violation of the Catholic understanding of marriage, then it is OK to be a witness.

If it were a ceremony that were in some way anti-Catholic (including generally anti-Christian), that would be something else again, but let’s hope a friend would not do that to a friend!