Attending non Catholic Marriage Ceremony

[MCabello]

Should I attend a Jewish marriage ceremony for my Catholic friend?
She was raised Catholic, and married a Jewish man in a civil ceremony 15 yrs ago.
Now, we receive an invitation to their Jewish wedding in Nov., and a Bar Mitzvah invitation several weeks later for their son.
I have not had the opportunity to ask my friend if she is denying her Catholic faith, but I dont think her son can be initiated into Judaism without his mother being a Jew, too.
Should we participate in the wedding?
Should we participate in the Bar Mitzvah?
Should I confront my friend about her faith?
Thank you for you attention. I pray for you.
M

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

It’s sad to here that she seems to be falling away from her faith. I would ask her about this. However, it is not immoral for you to attend the events.

 

[1ke]

It is not wrong for Catholics to attend non-Catholic weddings. Non Catholics marry each other validly.

However, this **isn’t **a “non Catholic wedding.”

This is a *Catholic *making an invalid attempt at marriage. Well, actually she is already invalidly married via civil ceremony.

So, no you should not participate in the wedding ceremony. And, if you are close to your friend, you should certainly discuss her faith situation with her.

 

[Lorraine_Pecus]

Here’s one!

What if a VERY CLOSE RELATIVE, a practicing Catholic, civilly divorced,marries another practicing Catholic, civilly divorced. They don’t feel that the church would grant them annulments. It was said that only the rich and famous get annulments like Kennedys/Celine Dion etc.
The ceremony will be presided by a justice of the peace in a hall. My husband and I are invited to attend. I was asked to participate in the ceremony itself as they wanted it to be a spiritual experience for both of them.
I was unsure of attending seeing that I was present for the first church wedding.
What would be your response…curious to find out. I’ll let you know what my response was in a bit!

Lorraine

 

[kage_ar]

To borrow a phrase from Jimmy Akin, if God ain’t gonna show up, I’m not going to either.

I’d tell my family member that as a practicing Catholic I cannot celebrate an invalid wedding. I’d offer to assist her in speaking to the Priest to have both marriages reviewed by the tribunal.

 

[Lorraine_Pecus]

Thank You! That’s what I thought…in fact another elderly relative said just that!

Now that person can turn around and say how do you know that God is not going to show up …how dare you judge…what kind of loving christian are you?..What about being there for your very close family member!

Any other takers or advice?

 

[crazzeto]

Why not? I’d be pretty interested to see what a Jewish ceramony looks like! I’ll be honest, seeing them break the glass on TV is kind of cool. I wish Catholics did that.

 

[William1964]

Now’s a good opportunity for you to give witness to your faith. Your attendance at an invalid ceremony is a silent approval. I would talk to her and give her your reasons.

 

[kage_ar]

Thank You! That’s what I thought…in fact another elderly relative said just that!

Now that person can turn around and say how do you know that God is not going to show up …how dare you judge…what kind of loving christian are you?..What about being there for your very close family member!

Any other takers or advice?

To the family member I simply remind them of the Church laws on marriage. If they have forgotten, I show them the Bible and Catechism. I tell them I love them too much to celebrate sin.