Marriage and Sacrament

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Recently we obtained the Marriage certificate of our parents dated 1943 that was a civil ceremony having it “witnessed” and noted for the record by a Catholic Priest. No name or signature of said Priest, being a Marriage prior to Dad going to war. My Catholic Mom did the best she could arraigning the affair in short order. That said , many years later and 9 children all raised Catholic , the question is , could this be a valid Sacramental Marriage? Mom and Dad are gone now but I’d like to think it was at least in the heart and minds of my parents.
 
You say it was “noted for the record by a Catholic priest”? What do you mean by that?
 
If you find nothing, I wouldn’t consider it evidence against… But do you know where they both were baptized? If people were properly documenting things, the parishes where they were baptized should have records of the marriage. A deacon or priest who witnessed it, or who obtained dispensation, should have had these parishes notified, if it was possible for him.
 
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Thanks for your advise. During the second war Dad was stationed on the West Coast , so to be deployed and was Baptized Lutheran ( for heavens sake) , Never converted but raise his Children Catholic being married to a Irish Catholic wife. So I suppose I can do more research into my Mothers records but being the urgent and pressing way they went about getting married civilly suggest Mom found a Catholic Priest , did the ceremony and had it recorded in the local county as one does.
 
Hi Joe. The marriage certificate was a " State" or “County” record ( California) , adding in notes witnessed by a Catholic Priest including the Best man and Maid of Honor names and signatures.
 
That it has a Catholic priest listed as witness makes it seem likely that it was all recognized by the Church. If you want to double check, you could try contacting the parish where the priest was from and having them check their records.
 
Thanks Joe, Good tip, Will take some detective work for sure. Needless to say Mom and Dad did raise all nine children Catholic , lived good lives and I suppose the Sacramental technicalities are now spiritually dispensed.
 
The Marriage is clearly a record of the County of Riverside , California recorded July 17th 1943. Just your run of the mill civil ceremony , Knowing my Catholic Mom , I’m confident she held her own having the Catholic Priest be there. These quick ceremonies were also very common with War and those that were in love.
 
The thing is, all marriages in USA are “records of the county of such-and-such” in the United States. When I need my marriage record, I call the county. I don’t call the church; it’s not a church record. (Unlike something like a baptismal record which is only kept by the church.)

You get a marriage license from the county, and when you are married, someone signs off on it and it becomes a county record.

In your case, the priest did not sign for whatever reason, but I cannot imagine he would stand around giving his presence on the record to a marriage for which the necessary dispensations, etc. had not been provided.
 
Does it specifically give a location? Or list a judge/magistrate as the officiant?

In 1943, a wedding between a Catholic and Protestant would not have been celebrated in the church itself; typically, it would have been in the rectory living room.
 
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You should request your mother’s sacramental records from her baptismal parish, if known.

The priest in CA would have sent the marriage record to the baptismal parish where it would be recorded in the sacramental register for your mother if it were a valid marriage in the church.

Beyond that, it’s pretty pointless to speculate based on the information you’ve give here.
 
Good advise… Having said that , spiritually speaking both Mom and Dad are gone now, interesting topic concerning Church validation thereof
 
Honestly, the line “recorded by a priest” would lead one to believe it is valid. From what you’ve written, there’s actually nothing to indicate otherwise.
 
Location (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.) Glad to share, They were wonderful parents of nine children , Dad did attend Christmas and Easter Mass , other than that he stayed out of the get dressed your going to Mass whether you want to or not on regular Sundays. However he did back Mom up if needed.
 
So nothing about that suggests it’s not a valid Catholic marriage. It looks like it was witnessed by Fr. Francis Widlek.
 
According to Ancestry dot com, in 1942 a Rev. Francis Widlak was the assistant pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church, 4268 Lime Street, Riverside, California. Looks like that parish is still open for business (their website lists it as “Riverside’s oldest parish”). You might try contacting them and see if they have any records of marriages performed in the 1940s.

And yes, that marriage certificate looks a lot like ours, which was signed by our two witnesses and the priest who married us, and at some point we got a copy of it back from the county.
 
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Thank you , I’ll follow up to see if we can understand more of our parents adventurous life.I’ll see if we can learn more about the Priest. Both were sweets hearts from Knoxville Tenn. Dad enlisted in the Army while in college and Mom followed him to California to marry quickly before Dad shipped off as so many young men did back then. Appreciate your information and time with this. Very helpful!!
 
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