Impromptu marriage

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I’m asking under what conditions a priest would perform a marriage on short notice. They’re hiding the pregnancy.**
It’s depend on the priest and of the couple. Chances may be higher if the couple is known of the parish, regular praticionners, and maybe if they are together for a long time to have an understanding priest.

As I said before, I was married in less than 6 months, not pregnant. the reasons of why are various, not very scandalous. the priests were not happy with that but accepted finally.

Just PM if you want to know more, but it will only be a testimony among others, not a proof.
 
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CeaselessMedik:
I’m asking under what conditions a priest would perform a marriage on short notice. They’re hiding the pregnancy.**
It’s depend on the priest and of the couple. Chances may be higher if the couple is known of the parish, regular praticionners, and maybe if they are together for a long time to have an understanding priest.

As I said before, I was married in less than 6 months, not pregnant. the reasons of why are various, not very scandalous. the priests were not happy with that but accepted finally.

Just PM if you want to know more, but it will only be a testimony among others, not a proof.
I approached my pastor in mid-July and was married at the end of October, back in 1975.
 
No… let’s go back to the beginning…

In the original post, the question was asked if a Catholic priest could perform a ceremony quickly, instead of the usual 3 or 6 months that it normally takes for marriage prep or pre-Cana, for the purpose of trying to hide an out of wedlock pregnancy. A shotgun wedding, if you will. This is part of a story in a fiction novel.

I suggested that, if the purpose was to keep Mama from having fits, could the characters go to Vegas and find a “Catholic” priest (there are “rent-a-priests” everywhere… former priests whose faculties have been suspended but still perform wedding ceremonies that aren’t valid or licit according to the church, but are happy to perform a ceremony for people who still want a “Catholic in name only” ceremony) get married and avoid scandal. However, because they ARE Catholic, their consciences bother them so they approach a priest (a REAL Catholic priest, in good standing) and explain the situation and inform them that they want to be validly married… but they don’t want Mama and the rest of the world to know that they aren’t validly married already. So the priest agrees to prepare them for marriage without making it public knowledge and marry them in a private ceremony with just the couple and two witnesses that are privy to the whole truth.

The original poster was inquiring about whether a couple could be married immediately by a Catholic priest in order to hide a pregnancy as a plot device in a novel he or she is writing. Since it’s not possible for a real Catholic priest to do an immediate wedding ceremony without the proper preparation, I suggested one possible way for the couple to try to give the impression of having gone through a proper wedding ceremony but then try to make it right, albeit trying to keep it a secret.

No actual priest would ever go through with an invalid wedding ceremony (or at least, we hope not) and I’m not suggesting that a REAL priest would do so. As I said, this is all revolving around a supposed storyline in a novel. None of it is real.

I hope this clears it up.
 
In the original post, the question was asked if a Catholic priest could perform …A shotgun wedding, if you will.
And yet, that wasn’t the question. I asked for clarification – that is, whether the priest knew it was a shotgun wedding, or if he was covering for another priest who knew it was. I don’t think I got an answer.
However, because they ARE Catholic, their consciences bother them so they approach a priest (a REAL Catholic priest, in good standing) and explain the situation and inform them that they want to be validly married… but they don’t want Mama and the rest of the world to know that they aren’t validly married already. So the priest agrees to prepare them for marriage without making it public knowledge and marry them in a private ceremony with just the couple and two witnesses that are privy to the whole truth.
Except that you’ve added extra facts not in evidence. We don’t know that it was a marriage performed illicitly by a priest without faculties… do we? (Or did I miss something?)
So the priest agrees to prepare them for marriage without making it public knowledge and marry them in a private ceremony with just the couple and two witnesses that are privy to the whole truth.
That’s easy enough, but it wasn’t part of the original question… was it?
The original poster was inquiring about whether a couple could be married immediately by a Catholic priest in order to hide a pregnancy as a plot device in a novel he or she is writing.
Notice that your additions to the plot change the situation. This second marriage you’re proposing isn’t “to hide the pregnancy”; it’s “to hide the invalid first attempt at marriage.” Apples and oranges, no?

If it really is in order “to hide a pregnancy”, then the priest in question really is knowingly attempting an invalid ‘shotgun wedding’. Which, we’ve pointed out, a Catholic priest wouldn’t (or, at least, shouldn’t ) attempt to do.

And sadly… it is a real situation, and one encountered in real life. 😦
 
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