Is it ok to get a different priest to officiate the wedding ceremony

[missyb2002]

My eldest daughter is going to be wed next year.She would like the priest that officiated the wedding ceremony of my husband and myself . The problem is about 4 months after he wed us, he went to study in the Vatican, and when he came back to the states he was transferred to a church about 80 miles away. Would it be o.k. to ask him to do her wedding ceremony, if so, how would we ask our current priest if he would be o.k. with it? She was really close to the reassigned priest, he helped us through some hard personal times.

 

[The_Fool]

It should be okay, however one must note that if the reassigned priest is assigned to a diocese other than the one you are in, he must first receive permission to operate within your diocese from your Bishop. I think the mass would be valid if he didn’t, but it wouldn’t be licit. It’s actually quite common, at least where I am, for a priest other than one assigned to the parish to celebrate over a wedding mass. Don’t feel uncomfortable, I’m sure everyone will understand. You can even have the resident priest con-celebrate if you’re that nervous about it.

But I’m just an idiot who’s never really been interested in marriage. Someone second this or correct me.

 

[texrec]

I can’t imagine that this would be a problem, but it’s simple to resolve. Go talk to your parish priest. Explain what you explained here. Let him guide you - I suspect he will give you good direction!

 

[benedictgal]

When my beloved paternal grandmother died, my parochial vicar traveled to Austin to celebrate the funeral Mass in her parish. Our chancellor sent the Diocese of Austin a letter indicating that my friend was a priest in good standing with the diocese and everything was ready.

In the case of the OP, the same principle would apply. In addition, there is also a document called prior delegation (if memory serves), where the pastor of the parish where the wedding will take place will grant delegation to the visiting priest to celebrate the wedding Mass. At the Cathedral, we would get that a lot. It’s not a very hard process. It usually involves a phone call between the priests (along with the necessary letters from one diocese to another, like I mentioned in the case of my grandma’s funeral).

 

[idrum677]

As long as you go through the proper channels, there should be no problem. Your parish priest should also understand this situation. I would talk with him first though.

My wedding had 4 priests in attendence. My wife’s cousin is a priest; he was principal celebrant and officiated the wedding. A priest from my former parish (which closed) whom I was very close to gave the homily. The pastor emeritus of my wife’s parish and the current pastor at the time also concelebrated.

 

[Phemie]

It’s also important to make sure that he is licensed to perform marriages. We ran into that when our pastor went to celebrate his niece’s wedding, not realizing that when he moved to our province he automatically lost his licence to perform marriages in his home province. That led to a big mess, as you can imagine.

I also found out that our diocese only applies for a licence for our priests if said priests request it, leading to the possibility that a pastor might not realize he isn’t licensed to perform marriages. FUN!

 

[Joe_Kelley]

My wife’s uncle married us. Since he was from another diocese he needed permission from our diocese; and since he was from another state he needed permission from the state. The diocese was simple. However, it took him a morning to get a large document from the state, signed by the governor and the Secretary of State authorizing him for the state.

 

[daeve]

When I was married we had both the pastor of the parish and my mother’s cousin who is a monseigneur. Someday I’ll learn how to spell tha word. All I had to do was ask the pastor. Our cousin stressed that I should ask if he could join him rather than replace him. He joined the parish priest at the weddings of everyone who was married after he was ordained.