May we attend the wedding of non-practicing Catholics?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JohnTHallowell
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JohnTHallowell

Guest
My wife and I have been invited to a friend’s wedding next April. Both the bride and the groom were baptized Catholic but they do not practice their faith or any other faith for that matter. This will be the first marriage for both but they are not being married in the Church. Are my wife and I obliged to decline this invitation?
 
If your friends have formally left the Catholic Church and no longer identify as Catholics, they are not formally bound to observe Catholic marital law. If there are no obvious impediments to the marriage (e.g., previous marriage, close blood relationship), the Church would presume it to be valid and sacramental.

If your friends are simply lapsed Catholics, then they are bound to observe the Catholic form of marriage. If they do not, the Church would presume their wedding to be invalid. The Church does not explicitly forbid Catholics from attending invalid marriages, but expects Catholics to use their prudential judgment in individual cases to uphold the Catholic understanding of marriage through their witness to and participation in the weddings they attend. For more information, please see the article linked below.

Recommended reading:

Should I Attend? by Catholics United for the Faith (CUF)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top