I’m going to assume the other party is Sikh, and that you are a Latin Church Catholic, rather than a Catholic of one of our Eastern Churches. If not, please advise and I will repost.
If the marriage has taken place already, the Catholic Church would not consider it valid.
Objectively, the Catholic person and the other party would be living in concubinage, a seriously grave moral situation.
Objectively, when a Catholic “marries outside the Church,” this involves some kind of breaking of full communion with the Church, the body of Christ… The sacraments, established by Christ and committed to the Church, pertain to the life of grace in union with Christ and His Church. They are much more than rituals and carry particular meaning in our Church. They express and create relationships with Christ and His Church. Christ acts through the sacraments to make himself present and confer grace. That is what happens at a Catholic wedding and continues through married life. In rejecting a Catholic wedding, there is an implicit rejection of Christ working in his Church. That too begs for reconciliation. Then as well, it is wise to recall that marriage is not just an arrangement of two people who “own” it in some way. It belongs to the community of faith, the Church.
When a baptized and a non-baptized person marry though, the marriage is not a sacrament. That is only the case when both are baptized. However, since God authored marriage, it remains a covenant of the whole of life, ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses, and the procreation and education of offspring. Christ remains present and works through the spouse who is baptized (another sacrament).
Assessing sin requires an additional evaluation into conscience though, so we can not determine that here. It should be evaluated in the sacrament of confession. But yes, as far as one could tell objectively and from the outside, it is “living in sin.”
To remedy this, the parties must convalidate the marriage. This “convalidation” requires a new consent, that is, the giving and receiving of vows, in the presence of a priest or deacon who is qualified by Church law to assist the parties to do that and two witnesses. In short, it requires a Catholic wedding ceremony.
If either party is not willing to do this, it is also possible to ask the bishop to grant a “radical sanation.” This does not require a ceremony, but the bishop must be sure that the natural, though legally ineffective, consent of the parties continues.
Both remedies can be discussed with your parish priest, and the sacrament of confession is more than appropriate.
As well, since Sikhs are not baptized, it would be necessary for the bishop, for the validity of the convalidation, to dispense from the diriment impediment of disparity of cult. An impediment is an obstacle to a valid marriage. Disparity of cult is the situation when a Catholic marries a non baptized person. A dispensation is a relaxation of a Church law by a competent authority. If a radical sanation is granted, it automatically carries any necessary dispensations with it.
If the marriage has not happened, the dispensation from disparity of cult is needed. For the marriage to take place in a Sikh religious ceremony, the bishop must also give a dispensation from the Catholic, or canonical, form of marriage. This is also a matter to discuss with the parish priest. The Church is gravely concerned when one of its own wishes to marry a non Christian. Saint Paul spoke of not being yoked with unbelievers. Experience from that new testament time is that such marriages present serious challenges to the life of faith of the believer and any children. The Church will not grant the dispensation unless it is certain those dangers are minimized.
God bless,
(Deacon) John M. Cameron, JCL
Lansing MI
