HELP!!

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cz1985

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Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me.
I am getting married in October if this year at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.
I cannot find a priest who will marry us. My fiancée’s parish priest can’t do it and every other priest I have phoned will not marry people outside of their parish. Does anyone know of a catholic priest or deacon that does marry people outside of their parish. It is really starting to upset me that I am having no luck with this. Can anyone point me in the right direction???
 
I assume your fiancé is Catholic?

If you are getting married at the Cathedral, then the Cathedral itself will have a parish priest (the ‘Cathedral Parish’). Speak to him first.

If you absolutely cannot find a priest (or a deacon, if you’re not having a Mass) available on that day, then you will probably have to change your date.

{Edited as an idea occurred}

You could also, at a stretch, I suppose, trawl through the Diocesan Directory and approach retired priests and deacons?
 
Yes that’s correct he is a catholic I was baptised as a Presbyterian although went to a catholic school my whole life. The cathedral have told me I cannot use their priest as we are not apart of the parish. I will tackle the long list I received from the diocesan.

Changing the date is not an option as getting a booking at the cathedral is almost a 16 month wait.

Thanks for your reply I really appreciate it.
 
My husband and I are from different dioceses, all that had to be done was a letter from his priest/bishop to mine telling them I wasn’t already married and vice versa

As it was 15 years ago, I might have the details a bit rusty

Either way, the majority of couples I know were from different parishes so I can’t see what your priest is talking about
 
Why does it have to be the Cathedral? Could it not be the parish where your fiancé resides? That would be the normal way of doing things.
 
We have both already acquired these letters and handed them to the cathedral this was required for us to even make a booking.

Neither of us belong to the cathedral parish. So the problem is finding a priest to marry us outside of their parish. Not many priests do this. Understandable.

My fiancés parish is too far from where the reception is being held. We booked the cathedral because we have both always wanted to be married there. At the time we booked I didn’t realise how hard it would be to find a priest willing to do this.

I think my best bet is looking for a retired priest or deacon that doesn’t have the travel restrictions some priests have.
 
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

†

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

†
 
Go to your fiance’s priest and ask him. Fly him in if necessary. Pay for all his expenses. I am surprised that the Cathedral let you book without a priest already lined up, especially if priests won’t marry people who are not of their parish. Who are you doing marriage prep with?

In the normal course of things, you call your parish, set a date, do the marriage prep with that parish and the priest of that parish, and the priest of that parish is the one to marry you.
 
I know you said your fiance’s parish priest was not available for that day, but you should still bring this question to him and ask him what you can do. Being that he is your husband’s pastor, he’s going to have to be the one to vouch for you guys, so he should be involved in this process regardless of whether or not he is available to celebrate the wedding himself.

Talk to him. Follow his advice.
 
jilly4ski said:
Who are you doing marriage prep with?
Click to expand...
This! 👍

There’s a priest or deacon who you’ve been working with, who did the paperwork with the diocese for mixed marriage and who did marriage prep (or referred you to a marriage prep program), right? Have you asked him?
 
We are not doing marriage prep with anyone at the moment, my understanding is that the priest who will marry us does the marriage prep.

My Fiance’s parish is the one who gave us the paperwork to submit to the Cathedral. We have already tried him and he cannot do it. Burt thank you we will go back to him and ask for some help.
 
cz1985 said:
We are not doing marriage prep with anyone at the moment, my understanding is that the priest who will marry us does the marriage prep.
Click to expand...
Umm… I want to say this as charitably and gently as possible…

Do you realize that there are certain requirements that you two have to complete in order to have a wedding that’s considered valid by the Catholic Church? Since he is Catholic and you’re a non-Catholic Christian, he needs to do the paperwork for a ‘mixed marriage’ through the diocese. It would probably be a very good idea to get started on this as soon as possible. 😉
My Fiance’s parish is the one who gave us the paperwork to submit to the Cathedral.
Click to expand...
Was this paperwork meant simply to reserve a date at the cathedral, or was it the pre-marital questionnaires for each of you?

With only seven months to go, I would think that you really want to give some serious attention to this issue: many parishes require a certain up-front period of time (which is spent planning, doing all the marriage catechesis and paperwork) before they’ll consider marrying a couple. Please consider attending to this as soon as practicable, ok? 😉
 
I understand that we have to find a priest that is willing to marry us as i am not Catholic , and he will in-turn have to submit the paperwork. Also that the priest will request us to attend a marriage workshop.

The paperwork was simply to reserve the Cathedral.
 
UPDATE:

I phoned the Catholic Diocese and a lovely lady (Loretta) told me she would find me a priest and not to worry.

How absolutely sweet of a stranger to help a stranger. You don’t come across that very often these days.

So whilst i will also keep searching, i feel slightly more confident about finding a priest for our October wedding. Still lots to do and organise but i’m getting there.
 
cz1985 said:
UPDATE:

I phoned the Catholic Diocese and a lovely lady (Loretta) told me she would find me a priest and not to worry.

How absolutely sweet of a stranger to help a stranger. You don’t come across that very often these days.

So whilst i will also keep searching, i feel slightly more confident about finding a priest for our October wedding. Still lots to do and organise but i’m getting there.
Click to expand...
👍 Congrats!!
 
cz1985 said:
UPDATE:

I phoned the Catholic Diocese and a lovely lady (Loretta) told me she would find me a priest and not to worry.

How absolutely sweet of a stranger to help a stranger. You don’t come across that very often these days.

So whilst i will also keep searching, i feel slightly more confident about finding a priest for our October wedding. Still lots to do and organise but i’m getting there.
Click to expand...
I’m glad it worked out. My second piece of advice was going to be to contact the diocese, but I figured if the priest couldn’t help you, that is what he’d tell you to do. :o
 
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