Question about mixed marriage between Catholic and Protestant

[TBolt1000T]

I’ve heard two or three different answers to this question over the years, and I don’t know what the Church actually says. What is to be done in the following hypothetical situation?

A Catholic man and a Protestant woman want to get married. Even though the woman is Protestant, she doesn’t have any problem with her future husband being Catholic, and they have come to an agreement that on Sundays, he’ll go to his church and she’ll go to hers. What should the man do if his future wife insists on getting married by her pastor in her Protestant church? Would the presence of a Catholic priest as a witness to the marriage make the sacrament licit and valid, or are they obligated to marry in a Catholic church? Let’s say that in this particular marriage, children aren’t an issue.

What is the correct answer to the question in this hypothetical situation? Thanks.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I’ve heard two or three different answers to this question over the years, and I don’t know what the Church actually says. What is to be done in the following hypothetical situation?

A Catholic man and a Protestant woman want to get married. Even though the woman is Protestant, she doesn’t have any problem with her future husband being Catholic, and they have come to an agreement that on Sundays, he’ll go to his church and she’ll go to hers. What should the man do if his future wife insists on getting married by her pastor in her Protestant church? Would the presence of a Catholic priest as a witness to the marriage make the sacrament licit and valid, or are they obligated to marry in a Catholic church? Let’s say that in this particular marriage, children aren’t an issue.

What is the correct answer to the question in this hypothetical situation? Thanks.

They can get a dispensation so that a Protestant minister can marry then and the Church will still accept the wedding as Sacramental and valid.

 

[adrift]

Being married in the Catholic Church does not mean to be married in a building.

Being married in the Church means to follow the form required.

It is possible to get a dispensation to marry in a Church Building of another faith conducted by the pastor of that Church with a priest in attendance. A dispensation from the Bishop is required to depart from the normal way that marriage is done for instance when marrying anyone that is not a Catholic.

The sacrment is administered in the Roman Rite by the couple. The minister or the priest would be a witness. The priest is the official witness of the Church that is why I believe he would be required to be there but that may not be the case.

 

[SMHW]

As others have said, a dispensation from the bishop is necessary for such a wedding. A priest or deacon need not be at the wedding but it’s wonderful if that is possible.

The couple is still required to complete the same marriage preparation as any other couple planning to marry in a Catholic church.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Being married in the Catholic Church does not mean to be married in a building.

Technically, it does. We would have to get permission to have a Catholic wedding outside a Catholic church. And dispensation if we’re marrying a non-Catholic and getting married in their church. Further, disparity of cult if we’re marrying a non-Christian. That marriage will be valid and natural, but not Sacramental as the other person is not Baptized.

 

[adrift]

Technically, it does. We would have to get permission to have a Catholic wedding outside a Catholic church. And dispensation if we’re marrying a non-Catholic and getting married in their church. Further, disparity of cult if we’re marrying a non-Christian. That marriage will be valid and natural, but not Sacramental as the other person is not Baptized.

I don’t believe you understood what I wrote.
Getting married in the Church means that you have followed the required form. You are getting married in the Church if you have a wedding outside a Catholic Church building but still follow the form by getting a dispensation to marry in another church building.

 

[EasterJoy]

I don’t believe you understood what I wrote.
Getting married in the Church means that you have followed the required form. You are getting married in the Church if you have a wedding outside a Catholic Church building but still follow the form by getting a dispensation to marry in another church building.

If you’re Catholic and you marry another baptised person with proper dispensations, then you are validly and sacramentally married, just as if the actual ceremony had taken place in a Catholic church.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I don’t believe you understood what I wrote.
Getting married in the Church means that you have followed the required form. You are getting married in the Church if you have a wedding outside a Catholic Church building but still follow the form by getting a dispensation to marry in another church building.

I think you missed my point. Matrimony is a Sacrament and the proper celebration of Sacraments is in a church building. Under ordinary circumstances the wedding will always be in a Catholic church building. Dispensations are exceptions to the rule, thus the term.

 

[TBolt1000T]

As others have said, a dispensation from the bishop is necessary for such a wedding. A priest or deacon need not be at the wedding but it’s wonderful if that is possible.

The couple is still required to complete the same marriage preparation as any other couple planning to marry in a Catholic church.

If the Protestant woman agreed to get married by a priest in her future husband’s Catholic church, would a dispensation from the bishop still be required? How would one go about getting the dispensation?

 

[Phemie]

If the Protestant woman agreed to get married by a priest in her future husband’s Catholic church, would a dispensation from the bishop still be required? How would one go about getting the dispensation?

They would require ‘permission for a mixed marriage’ if she’s a baptized Protestant – bishops often delegate granting permission to the priest who is preparing the couple.

They would require a “dispensation for disparity of cult” if she was unbaptized – as in “she is a member of the Salvation Army or any of the denominations that have no baptism or non-Trinitarian baptisms that are often lumped together under the ‘Protestant’ banner.”

The priest who prepares the couple for marriage is the one who asks the bishop for the dispensation and he has to say why he thinks it’s a good idea to grant it. In most petition requests I’ve seen “Spiritual welfare of the couple” is the reason given.

 

[Chatter163]

I’ve heard two or three different answers to this question over the years, and I don’t know what the Church actually says. What is to be done in the following hypothetical situation?

A Catholic man and a Protestant woman want to get married. Even though the woman is Protestant, she doesn’t have any problem with her future husband being Catholic, and they have come to an agreement that on Sundays, he’ll go to his church and she’ll go to hers. What should the man do if his future wife insists on getting married by her pastor in her Protestant church? Would the presence of a Catholic priest as a witness to the marriage make the sacrament licit and valid, or are they obligated to marry in a Catholic church? Let’s say that in this particular marriage, children aren’t an issue.

What is the correct answer to the question in this hypothetical situation? Thanks.

My advice would be to not get married. This is an example of why the Church encourages Catholics to marry other Catholics. If the wife “insists on getting married by her pastor in her Protestant church” and she intends to continue to attend that church on a weekly basis, what are the odds that “in this this particular marriage, children aren’t an issue”? What does that even mean?

 

[Redratfish]

My advice would be to not get married. This is an example of why the Church encourages Catholics to marry other Catholics. If the wife “insists on getting married by her pastor in her Protestant church” and she intends to continue to attend that church on a weekly basis, what are the odds that “in this this particular marriage, children aren’t an issue”? What does that even mean?

You are exagerating. The Church has set up dispensations for such occasions, then why would you say such a thing? I am guessing that children not being an issue means children raised Catholic. Unless the OP explains, that is what it appears to be.

 

[Chatter163]

You are exagerating. The Church has set up dispensations for such occasions, then why would you say such a thing? I am guessing that children not being an issue means children raised Catholic. Unless the OP explains, that is what it appears to be.

What am I exaggerating???