Can they be married in a catholic church?

[catholicbobby]

A man and Woman have lived together for 5 years.They are both confirmed Catholics.They become engaged. They discover they are pregnant. They are married in a Civil ceremony. They now want to be married in a Catholic Church. Possible? What steps must they take?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

As long as neither one of them have been married before then, yes, they are eligible to be married in the Church. It would not be a normal wedding Mass however. The process is called validation or convalidation. It requires that the couple show a copy of their civil marriage license and produce some witnesses who can testify that neither party has been previously married to someone else. They would then submit their sacramental records and agree to the Church’s understanding of marriage. Their vows would then be exchanged in front of a cleric and two witnesses in a small private ceremony.