Can two Catholics get married if one of them doesn't believe everything the Church teaches

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Holly3278

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Hey everyone. I am engaged to a Catholic man but he does not believe everything that the Catholic Church teaches. Will we still be able to get married in the Catholic Church?
 
Plenty of Catholics marry non-Catholics and non-Christians in Catholic Churches (I have family members who hve for instance) and they clearly have differing views on church teaching.

No issues as long as they agree to raise children Catholic.

That said - being on the same page is obviously easiest and best because it could result in issues down the road
 
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My heart is not big enough to love someone for the rest of my life if we did not share some core principles.

If you can do it, that’s great, but as people said already, you should talk it out to avoid problems further down the road.
 
This depends on exactly what he doesn’t believe. If he’s struggling with doubts about Purgatory or whether the dog goes to heaven when it dies, you can probably get around that. If, on the other hand, he disagrees with Church teachings about birth control, abortion or divorce, that could possibly have a big adverse effect on you and your marriage.

Also, if the thing he has a problem with is a favorite devotion of yours, for example he has a problem with Marian devotion and you love to say the Rosary, then that could cause conflict.

You need to realistically look at how your future spouse’s lack of belief in some area could harm you and your family, and if necessary, talk to your priest.
 
I’m not so much concerned about how it will affect our marriage. I’m more concerned as to whether or not we will be allowed to get married in the Catholic Church. Will the Catholic Church still marry us if he has doubts about some of the teachings of the Catholic Church? The main doubt he was talking about to me is that he sees nothing wrong with gay marriage so he disagrees with the Church on that. Would we still be able to get a sacramental marriage in the Catholic Church, despite his dissent?
 
I know from personal experience that birth control and baptism of children should be deal breakers. I turned a blind eye out of love…and it has led to major issues.
 
Holly, no one is going to quiz him about what he believes or doesn’t believe before they will marry you. If he is Catholic and you are Catholic, you are fine.
If you can live with the differences, that is what matters. So just be sure you really understand them so they don’t cause problems for you down the road.

That said, I am happy for you Holly and your son. 🙂
May God bless all of you with a happy life.
 
Alright, awesome. So there are no rules that says he has to believe everything that the Catholic Church teaches in order for us to get married in the Church?
 
Nope. Pretty sure there are many, many marriages out there where husbands and wives are both Catholic, but see things differently about Catholicism. You are good.
You will learn more about your differences and such at Pre-Cana.
 
Yes, May 30, 2020. We’ve already talked with our pastor about it and got things set up. We still just need to do that quiz thing but we can’t figure out how to log in to it.
 
I’m presuming your fiance is not trying to get married to another man in the Catholic Church, given that he’s marrying you, so the Church is not going to bother about what he thinks of gays or gay marriage for purposes of marrying him to you.

The priest will likely talk to the two of you about questions related to your actual marriage and life together, such as whether you are open to having children and whether you plan to raise them Catholic. If your husband doesn’t want to have children or doesn’t want to raise them Catholic, then the priest might refuse to marry you. But the priest isn’t going to ask what your future husband thinks of gay marriage, and it wouldn’t affect your ability to get married even if he did.
 
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Irishmom2 said:
Nope. Pretty sure there are many, many marriages out there where husbands and wives are both Catholic, but see things differently about Catholicism. You are good.
You will learn more about your differences and such at Pre-Cana.
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And also plenty of marriages where one spouse is Catholic and the other one not, so they have differences over even more things, but they’re still allowed to get married in the Church.
 
Exactly. There are plenty of mixed marriages where the couple gets along better together than some marriages where both are Catholic.

So by that Holly, I mean that differences in what you both believe of Catholicism happen all the time. Be at peace.
 
You’ll be asked three things:
  1. Will you be accepting of children should God send some your way?
  2. Do you intend to be faithful?
  3. Do you intend this marriage to be until death?
 
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