Marriage of two Catholics before a Protestant Minister

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Kris34 said:
All bets are off when the Holy Father is involved. That is why it made news.

By the way the follow up news is important. The couple actually were supposed to marry in the church so were prepared but there was an earthquake. So they married civilly. The wedding on the plane was NOT the marriage service but A marriage service. They had been to confession the groom saw the Pope on a prior flight his bride wasn’t on. It wasn’t spontaneously done. He simply validated a marriage in the eyes of the church of the couple.
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Yes, IOW, they had a convalidation on the plane. They were not validly married before, he witnessed their exchange of consent in front of two witnesses and now they are validly married. The Holy Father can do what he wants in this matter and it was previously arranged so I’m willing to bet that the proper paperwork had been done with their parish.
 
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In the Byzantine and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches, the blessing of the priest is necessary for the validity of the marriage.
 
No, in fact, the Church forbids any form of “second vow exchange”. With the proper permission from the Ordinary, two Catholics may be married in scuba gear at the bottom of Lake Erie.
 
Can someone (preferably a priest or a canon lawyer) confirm that this part of the 1891 Baltimore Catechism no longer applies? From the chapter on Matrimony:
Q. 1040. What penalty does the Church impose on Catholics who marry before a Protestant minister?

A. Catholics who marry before a Protestant minister incur excommunication; that is, a censure of the Church or spiritual penalty which prevents them from receiving the Sacrament of Penance till the priest who hears their confession gets special faculties or permission from the bishop; because by such a marriage they make profession of a false religion in acknowledging as a priest one who has neither sacred power nor authority.
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I would presume that said section is out of date as we have a new Catechism now and the Baltimore Catechism has a lot of other stuff in it about how awful mixed marriages are, which does not seem to be the attitude today, based on my experience.
But I’m just a dumb bear.
 
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That was before even the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which standardized the canons. Today we are under the 1983 Code, and no such excommunication applies. Catholics are still obliged to marry according to Divine law and canon law.
 
Thanks, I figured as much. The only sin I’ve heard the word “excommunicated” in connection with in the last 30 years has been abortion.
 
We can read the Code of Canon Law on the Vatican website, but it is pretty dry reading. There are only a few automatic (latae sentenciae) excommunications. Most penalties are left to the judgement of individual bishops.
 
I do have a follow up question after reading comments in this thread.

We cannot act in defiance of the Church and go out and get married outside the Church then expect a blessing after, right?

But what if a priest and/or parish is being completely unreasonable with their requests and what if no other parish is available to go to?

For example, when I was getting ready to get married the priest told me a story of how he made a couple wait three years to get married, during which they were not allowed to speak to each other, because he wanted them to ‘prove’ their love before he would marry them.

In a situation like that, where a priest makes a request like that… wouldn’t it be understandable for the couple to get married elsewhere?

Would that really be an act of defiance against the Church when I’m quite sure the Church itself wouldn’t request such a ‘proof of love’.
 
somecanadian said:
In a situation like that, where a priest makes a request like that… wouldn’t it be understandable for the couple to get married elsewhere?
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What would actually be understandable would be for the couple to contact the bishop and tell him he has a priest who is out of his mind. If that doesn’t work, the St. Joseph Foundation has a reputation for doing good work.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
What would actually be understandable would be for the couple to contact the bishop and tell him he has a priest who is out of his mind. If that doesn’t work, the St. Joseph Foundation has a reputation for doing good work.
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^This.
if you suspect a priest is being unreasonable, or overstepping his authority, or doing something else seriously incorrect with respect to marriage, the correct answer is “contact the diocese” or “get a canon lawyer”.
Not “leave the Church and go get married somewhere else”.

In much of North America, it’s also unlikely that there wouldn’t be another priest anywhere around, but if the unreasonable priest is your pastor (and the other person does not belong to another parish so it’s not an option to just go to his pastor instead), you may run into problems with getting permission to marry in another parish.
 
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somecanadian said:
It is my understanding that the Church recognizes secular marriages as marriages and will sometimes bless the marriages of former non-Catholics who come into the Church (and no, those couples aren’t seen as having lived in sin for being with the spouses prior to becoming Catholic).
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I am a convert married to - of all things - an Anglican (the joke is at least he’s not Lutheran, LOL). Because we were married in a church by a minister of that church under the rites of that church (United Methodist) and both of us are baptized, albeit not into the Catholic faith, our marriage is considered sacramental, and needed nothing from the Church when I converted to Catholicism.

Just adding for information. 🙂 I’m sure someone will read this thread who has questions.
 
somecanadian said:
For example, when I was getting ready to get married the priest told me a story of how he made a couple wait three years to get married, during which they were not allowed to speak to each other, because he wanted them to ‘prove’ their love before he would marry them.
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That couple had a most valid reason to appeal to the Bishop.
 
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