Melkite / Roman Catholic Marriage

[confusedcatholic]

I’m very confused and I’m hoping someone can help.

My mother is not religious. My father is Catholic, I am not sure which rite. As he’s estranged I can’t ask him and my mother unfortunately doesn’t understand the differences between denominations.

They baptised me in the Melkite Church, but I went to Roman Catholic schools my entire life and have been attending Mass weekly for over 15 years of my own accord in the Roman Catholic Church. I consider myself Roman Catholic.

This year I am getting married to a lapsed Protestant, and he’s ok with us getting married in the Roman Catholic Church. Is this a simple dispensation from one Bishop to another or is more required? I only found out I was baptised Melkite a few years ago, and at the time my RC Parish Priest told me there converting into RC was a complicated process that wasn’t needed and I was fine to celebrate mass in a Roman Catholic Church.

thanks

 

[FrDavid96]

It’s a lot more complicated.

You are going to need to sit down with the priest who you want to officiate at the wedding and go through things with him. If he’s not well-versed in Eastern canon law, he’s going to need help from the chancery (or someone who is).

You’re going to need multiple permissions here.

 

[ziapueblo]

Whatever you’re father was, Melkite or Roman, is what you are (canonically speaking). However, I see that you cannnot ask your father about this. Have you a spoke to your parish priest? I’m sure some small formalities, if any are even needed. From what I understand, any Catholic can receive any of the sacraments in any rite with the exception of holy orders. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

Hope his helps. If not, someone much smarter than I will have an answer for you

ZP

 

[ziapueblo]

So I may be a little wrong on some things.

 

[FrDavid96]

. From what I understand, any Catholic can receive any of the sacraments in any rite with the exception of holy orders. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

No. Marriage requires that the officiant have jurisdiction (either direct or delegated).

The OP is going to need multiple permissions here. It’s going to take a while.

 

[ziapueblo]

Got it! Thanks for the correction!

 

[confusedcatholic]

How long would you say?

I’m getting married in late September/early October. I live in Australia but I’m getting married in the US - would permissions need to be granted for the Priest officiating as well?

Curious about my future children - will I be able to baptise them Roman Catholic easily, or will that be more paperwork?

 

[FrDavid96]

How long would you say?

Not something that can be predicted.
It’s going to depend a lot on how knowledgeable your own priest (or whoever does the pre-marital paperwork) is about not just Latin but Eastern Canon Law.

I’m getting married in late September/early October. I live in Australia but I’m getting married in the US - would permissions need to be granted for the Priest officiating as well?

That should be plenty of time. The extra paperwork will take “days” or “weeks” (because documents will need to be sent via mail); but I can’t imagine that it would cause any delay beyond September. Just don’t put things off until the last minute. If you wait until August, you’ll have a problem. If you start the process soon, and you have someone guiding you who knows the canons well, you should have no problem in terms of time.

And yes, if you’re getting married outside of the diocese where you live, the priest will need proper delegation from your home pastor or bishop. You will also need a marriage license issued by the particular state where the marriage is going to occur.

Curious about my future children - will I be able to baptise them Roman Catholic easily, or will that be more paperwork?

It appears from what you wrote that you are canonically Melkite. (I say “appears” because I only have the information already posted). You will have to get a baptism certificate from the Melkite parish where you were baptised to see if anything out-of-ordinary was done at the time. If there is a note there indicating that you were baptised into Latin Rite membership (despite the location), then you are canonically Roman. Absent any such notice, then you are canonically Melkite. That means that if you marry a non-Catholic your own children will be canonically Melkite. However, you have some options to change that when the time comes (just don’t forget to do it, or your children will be in the same awkward position themselves).

You will need a number of different permissions/dispensations. All of them can be granted by the local pastor or bishop (no need to petition Rome). The good news is that all of them are usually routinely granted.

I just cannot stress enough that you need someone who is familiar with the Eastern Canon Law to help you work through this. If you have such a person, the process should go rather smoothly. On the other hand, if you don’t, you’ll have problems as the who process goes forward.