Can I be a best man at a non-Catholic wedding?

[ThyKingdomCome]

Unless, of course the previous marriages were invalid. *We *couldn’t know that. They don’t have marriage tribunals in their faith to help discern. We have them in our faith.

Only God knows really in those scenarios.

Our marriage tribunals don’t grant annulments. They discern what was lacking when contracting the marriage to make it invalid.

Very good point. Michelle Arnold uses the term “presumptively invalid.” In the case of the OP’s friend, we would presume this upcoming marrage to be invalid because we would first presume the first ones to be valid in the first place. The church, in it’s practice errs on the side of validity, which is why a tribunal would be required.

I had posted a link from EWTN written by Michelle Arnold. I think it’s worth reading.

ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=573287&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2009&Author=&Keyword=weddings&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=22&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=

That’s a good link. Thanks for sharing. I hope I’m not being a broken record, but I want to point out again, that each of the articles that are discussing this topic, are always explaining the prudence of attending a presumptively invalid wedding. Being an official witness (meaning being in the wedding party) at a presumptively invalid wedding is a very different matter, in which out participation carries more weight, and which requires a much stronger level of our cooperation in a “presumptive sin” (I know I made a phrase up), and therefore is not left up to prudential judgment.

Often our dilemma is whether or not to attend, in which case, all of these links can be very helpful in reminding us that we don’t just have to snap and say “no” but that we can consider other factors. For those whose dilemma is about being in the wedding party, it’s more black and white.