I Am Catholic, But Was Married Outside the Church. Can I Receive Communion? A Catholic Response to This Question

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Many Catholics, probably not the most observant, but still Catholic, seem honestly unaware of the need to marry within the laws of the Church. There is much need for better catechesis.
 
The title of this thread is a bit misleading as the article question states, in its entirety,
“We were married by a pastor in his office as we are both over 75. One of us is Catholic, the other Protestant. Can the Catholic still receive Communion?”

As the article points out, it does not explain whether the pastor was a Catholic pastor or Protestant pastor. I also cannot imagine a 75-year-old Catholic person, who was very likely married once before and widowed, somehow not knowing that when they get married, it needs to be by a Catholic priest. I suppose anything could happen.

It is not a big deal to marry a baptized Protestant as long as the person doesn’t have any living former spouse and you get married in the Catholic church by a priest. If one of those two criteria is not present, that’s when you start to have issues.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
Many Catholics, probably not the most observant, but still Catholic, seem honestly unaware of the need to marry within the laws of the Church. There is much need for better catechesis.
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This was me, and despite what the article says, the process to rectify it was not simple. It’s such a common situation nowadays that you’d think priests would be given some kind of guidance in how to deal with it both sensitively and appropriately; regrettably the priest who promised to help me with my marriage had received no such guidance, and consequently did some very, very serious damage.

In addition to better (or any!) catechesis as a long-term solution, the immediate situation demands better (or any?) training in pastoral care for this situation. It isn’t fair to tell priests they must “accompany” their parishioners and then just assume they know how to do it.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
It is not a big deal to marry a baptized Protestant as long as the person doesn’t have any living former spouse and you get married in the Catholic church by a priest. If one of those two criteria is not present, that’s when you start to have issues.
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There’s also the possibility for a dispensation from the latter requirement mentioned, so it could happen in the Protestant church with that pastor.
 
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