Civil marriage terminology

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cactus
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Cactus said:
With civil marriage and the Sacrament of Matrimony meaning essentially two different things, should the Church get out of the issue of having our priests and deacons functioning as civil deputies in marriage licenses? How about if the Church ministers the sacrament on her terms and rise above what the legal fuss.

vivificat1.blogspot.com/2011/07/do-we-need-to-use-different-word-for.html?m=1
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I think that is what is going to happen. Either the church will do it on it’s own or the governments will revoke the function .
 
who the government authorizes as civil witnesses for weddings is up to the government, not the Church. You may get your wish before long.
 
The only issue with this is I could see may non-Catechized Catholics getting their legal wedding done and never getting their actual wedding done - or also moving in and living together as husband and wife after their legal wedding wedding and forgetting about the Sacrament of Reconciliation before their actual wedding taking the Eucharist in a state of sin out of ignorance. It could be a real mess for a while. :confused: Yes more so than now.
 
It’s not just about government deciding who can witness weddings, it’s also about clergy being willing to apply for the license to witness. I know that Canadian bishops threatened to stop doing legal weddings at the time Parliament was debating same-sex marriages. Some of us were quite happy to think that might happen but nothing came of the threat.

If Canadian and American clergy got out of the civil marriage business it would be inconvenient for some, but those who truly care and want a religious marriage would not be deterred. After all, it works in France, Germany, Mexico, Monaco, etc.
 
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