Can Catholic Weddings be outdoors?

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stina

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I’ve been told that one can get married through the Church outside under certain guidelines. I have a friend who is Catholic and wants to get married on the beach. I also have a Catholic aunt who got married in a Lutheran church. Can someone please explain to me the rules for the setting of a Catholic wedding? Does it really matter if it is in a church? Thanks! 🙂
 
Catholics are required to get married in a Catholic Church unless they receive a dispensation from their Bishop to do otherwise. Your Catholic aunt hopefully received a dispensation from her Bishop to marry in a Lutheran Church. If not, her marriage is considered invalid by the Church and needs to be convalidated.

Yes, it does matter. Matrimony is a Sacrament. There is no better place for a Sacrament to be celebrated than in a Church in the real presence of our Lord.
 
For the sake of clarity, I found the following:

Canon 1115 Marriages are to be celebrated in a parish where either of the contracting parties has a domicile, quasidomicile, or month long residence or, if it concerns transients, in the parish where they actually reside. With the permission of the proper ordinary or proper pastor, marriages can be celebrated elsewhere.

Also, there is another thread on CAF titled “Where can Catholics get married?” under “Liturgy and Sacraments” that I participated in in mid-July that gives viewpoints supporting being married in a Church. And, I’m sure there have been other discussions about it as well if you do a search, so there is probably much to read.

Bottom line, a Catholic must get married in a Catholic Church unless he/she is given permission from his/her Bishop to do otherwise.
 
Our Parish is in the mountians and father is inundated with requests from people who want to get married outdoors “in the mountains” his reply is always “Why would you want to get married in front of the mountains when you can get married in front of he who made them”?
 
The Bishop must grant permission for a Catholic to get married in any place other than their own home Parish Catholic Church.
 
What I have always told people if you knew the world was going to end today where is the first place you would go the beach or your Chruch?

Why would you not want to get married in Church people who dont want to dont know what is actually taken place in the mass

But then I do know of masses taken place outdoors 🤷
 
Odell said:
What I have always told people if you knew the world was going to end today where is the first place you would go the beach or your Chruch?

Why would you not want to get married in Church people who dont want to dont know what is actually taken place in the mass

But then I do know of masses taken place outdoors 🤷
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The reasons that particular Masses have been celebrated outdoors is because it is impossible to jam hundreds of thousands of people into a Church. As big as St. Peter’s is, you could not have fit the sea of humanity that descended upon Rome for Pope John Paul’s funeral. In fact, even St. Peter’s Square couldn’t hold the crowds.

But, a wedding Mass is an entierly different matter altogether. You wouldn’t think of giving birth to your baby outdoors (unless it was an emergency). You wouldn’t dream of having your appendix taking out atop your dining room table. There is a place appropriate for everything. Unless there is an emergency, like a tornado blowing the roof off the church, or an earthquake or a bomb, the sacraments should be celebrated inside the church.
 
Catholic weddings can be outdoors, with permission from the Bishop.

But, FWIW, I think they should be in the church, where God lives-and not in the cheap showiness of nature 😃

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that line-you get extra credit if you can tell me where those two jokes came from.
 
Karl_M said:
Catholic weddings can be outdoors, with permission from the Bishop.

But, FWIW, I think they should be in the church, where God lives-and not in the cheap showiness of nature 😃

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that line-you get extra credit if you can tell me where those two jokes came from.
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all Simpsons jokes are appreciated.

I will just follow up by saying that if it is true that one needs the permission of the Bishop in order to have a wedding outside, this is not the same thing as saying it is wrong to have a wedding somewhere other than inside a church building. You just need permission.
 
kage_ar said:
The Bishop must grant permission for a Catholic to get married in any place other than their own home Parish Catholic Church.
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Actually approval for being married in a different Catholic church doesn’t have to go all the way to the Bishop. If you want to get married in a Catholic church other then your own parish all that has to happen is that the parish where you are getting married has to verify that there is nothing standing in the way of you getting married (i.e. previous marriage) and that you have gone through the proper prep. Usually this is done via a letter from your actual parish.

Any marriage outside of a Catholic church has to be approved by a Bishop but not ones in Catholic churches.

Also if you want to have a priest marry you from outside the diocese that you are getting married in then the Bishop of that diocese would have to approve.

I briefly looked at what it would take to get married in St. Lucia and as long as you were getting married in the Cathedral in St. Lucia all you needed was certification from your own parish and to abide by the local marriage laws (i.e. 48 hours in the country before getting married.) There also may be non-parishioner fees for using the church, if you are doing anything other then just being married before the priest and two witnesses.
 
I am wondering why there are no requests for confirmation or confession on the beach?
 
THurifer2 said:
I am wondering why there are no requests for confirmation or confession on the beach?
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Actually I have seen confession on the beach. It is allowed. Confession is allowed anywhere a priest and penitant can go (within reason 😉 )
 
Badaliyyah said:
all Simpsons jokes are appreciated.
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Just for the record, my commets came not just from the Simpson’s.

The second part did-when a disaster befalls an outdoor wedding, Rev. Lovejoy remarks that it never would have happened if the wedding was “in the church with God, rather than out here, in the cheap showiness of nature.”

The first part came from an episode of Frasier, when a couple’s mother objected to a courthouse wedding. When the groom’s brother (the title character) noted that “the Bible says, whenever two are gathered in my name, I am with you-so doesn’t that mean that God is truly always with us?” The mother shot back with “No! God lives at the church.” 😃 I love that line.

Although the exchange was written a joke, It raises a point that many people often try to bring up-why do we need to get marrined in some building by someone wearing a collar? My question to them is why not? Some people put themselves before God-they want it their way, not God’s way. Not all of the theme weddings are this way, but I think too many of them are.

FWIW, I think the wedding should be in the church-where God lives.
 
stina said:
I’ve been told that one can get married through the Church outside under certain guidelines…
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Perhaps. But WHY would anyone want to take what is holy and drag it down to that level?
 
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