Catholic husband and Protestant wife

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Scrappy777

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Hello.
I am a prodigal Catholic who has returned back to the Roman Catholic Church of my youth: it was where I had first Communion, it was where I was an altar boy, it was where I was confirmed. And getting to the point, this was also the Church where I married my protestant wife in a Catholic ceremony. I had the Eucharist though my wife was denied that. She wasn’t even baptized - both her and I were very liberal at the time, hence the drifting away experienced by me for years. 11 years after the wedding my wife was baptised in a Bapist church with the Trinitarian formula. But this was 11 years after our wedding ceremony.

Question: is my wedding valid in the eyes of church? Am I living in sin? I am trying to right my numerous wrongs as I attempt to come home.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Rick
 
Hello, welcome to the forum (until december 31 2020…)!
Scrappy777 said:
he Roman Catholic Church
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Scrappy777 said:
nd getting to the point, this was also the Church where I married my protestant wife in a Catholic ceremony.
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What you have wrote here answer your own question:
Scrappy777 said:
is my wedding valid in the eyes of church?
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Yes. A catholic wedding celebrated in a church is valid, even if one of the spouse is protestant, given the marriage was allowed to take place.
Scrappy777 said:
Am I living in sin?
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No, unless you deliberately don’t live accordingly to Catholics principles. Just read the cathechim of the Catholic Church to start, if you don’t have yet.

Just out of curiosity, do you have any children, and any disagreement concerning their religious education? Is that of the point of your worry?
 
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Elf01 said:
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Scrappy777:
She wasn’t even baptized -
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This may be an issue. Was the priest who prepared you aware of this?
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Even if the protocol may be different, it’s possible to marry someone who is not baptized.

I think it would be curious that a priest miss to ask, but as I don’t know wel who the baptist work, I will stop here.
 
Anicette said:
Even if the protocol may be different, it’s possible to marry someone who is not baptized.
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Yes, but it needs a dispensation. An ungranted dispensation invalidates the marriage.
Anicette said:
I think it would be curious that a priest miss to ask, but as I don’t know wel who the baptist work, I will stop here.
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I would hope so, but I could Imagine the priest asking what her religion is, being told protestant and him assuming she was baptzed. We have seen couples in valid marriages being told to convalidate on conversion, so, sadly, mistakes are made.
 
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Are all the Protestant Churches take some records or registrations or written proofs of bapstim?

If yes, it’s very easy to give a proof. If not…

I guess a person who is considering herself as a protestant because of a religious upbringing but not baptized will be considered simply as having no religion by the Catholic Church.

Another possibility would be that she was baptized in a protestant church as a child and the baptized again because her current Baptist Church does not recognized the infant baptism…
 
Anicette said:
I guess a person who is considering herself as a protestant because of a religious upbringing but not baptized will be considered simply as having no religion by the Catholic Church.

Another possibility would be that she was baptized in a protestant church as a child and the baptized again because her current Baptist Church does not recognized the infant baptism…
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I’m taking the OP at his word that she was not baptized at the time of the wedding, canonically, making her non Christian.
 
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Elf01 said:
Yes, but it needs a dispensation. An ungranted dispensation invalidates the marriage.
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Since the OP was married in a Catholic church via a Catholic ceremony, I assume a dispensation was obtained. Gathering information about each person’s baptismal status is part of the preparation process.
 
So, you can see by the answers that there are some things that could invalidate your marriage. However really, the easiest way to find this out is to ask your parish priest.
 
Thank you to all who replied.

We did not hide anything from the Priest at time of wedding regarding my wife’s spirituality. We went to marriage classes at Catholic Church before wedding. I did all that the Priest required of me and answered any and all questions to the best of my ability.

Thank you all for taking the time. My wife and I have been happily married since 1997, we were high school sweethearts, we have 4 children, two boys and two girls.

God bless you.
Rick
 
Scrappy777 said:
We did not hide anything from the Priest at time of wedding regarding my wife’s spirituality.
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For the record, I was not accusing you of hiding anything, but afraid that the priest may not have asked the right questions.

When I hear protestant I assume baptized, and can imagine somebody else doing the same and not thinking to ask further.
 
In most parishes, at least in mine, they don’t just ask, they require baptismal certificates or confirmations from the other Churches.
 
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Scrappy777 said:
We did not hide anything from the Priest at time of wedding regarding my wife’s spirituality. We went to marriage classes at Catholic Church before wedding. I did all that the Priest required of me and answered any and all questions to the best of my ability.
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Given all this, I can’t think that there would be anything that would be invalidating your marriage at present. You could always ask the priest who performed your marriage about it, but it seems to me like you’re in the clear.
 
Even if you knew that the priest had fallen down on the job and botched your wedding, there is nothing that would be done about it at this point, as you are happily married. Regardless of what dirt you may dig up on yourselves, marriage enjoys the favor of the law. The only way any of it would come to bear on your case would be if you divorced and sought a decree of nullity, which you are not doing, so there is literally no point whatsoever in seeking out evidence like this.
 
When your wife was validly baptized, your valid, natural marriage became Sacramental as well 🙂
 
If you answered all the marriage preparation questions honestly prior to your wedding, you should not be concerned. Your priest would have gotten any necessary approvals from the bishop, and your marriage would be considered valid even if she weren’t yet baptized. You would not have been living in sin then or now because of the marriage.

Be at peace and Marry Christmas!
 
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