Question regarding Eastern Orthodox Valid Marriage

[MamaMia3]

Hi there,
Does anyone know the answer to this one… I was just speaking with an Eastern Orthodox friend of mine. Apparently she is currently not in good stading with her church because she married a Jewish man outside the church. Before she started dating him all her Catholic friends told her you could marry a non baptised person in the church as long as you promised to raise them in the church. After 3 years of dating him and getting engaged she found out from her church that she was not allowed to marry a non-baptised person. So they had a protastant wedding. She is now considered not in good standing and can not recieve Holy Communion. Even though she attends every week and has baptised all of her children in the Eastern Orthodox church.
Why are we Catholics allowed to intermarry and it is considered valid, yet Eastern Ortodox may not, I thought they were very similiar in sacramental beliefs.
Is there anything my friend can do to get back in good standing? I could not imagine not being able to recieve the Holy Eucurist.
She has told me how much this hurts her. (was was very young and naive when she got married and did not relize she would be out of good standing when she married)
I would like to help her if I can. Is anyone here familiar with Eastern Orthodoxy and there rules???

 

[Formosus]

One of the Seven Councils forbade marriage with non baptised persons I beleive. The Byzantines view marriage as taking place because of the Priest’s blessing, unlike the latins who beleive the marriage is a mutual contract between the two couples. Hence why if the marriage was outside the Orthodox church ceremony, it would be viewed as invalid.

 

[marlo]

As this answer of mine is based on the Latin view,
we are not automatically allowed to marry a non catholic or especially a non baptized person. Thus the term we are allowed to intermarry is quite incorrect. A Catholic Christian must first seek the approval of its Local Bishop for the marriage to be recognized by the church.

I believe all ancient church requires approval from the bishop for special issue such cases as this, however it seems that the EO does not have this procedure.

Taken from: usccb.org/laity/marriage/marriagefaqs.shtml

The Catholic must seek permission from the local bishop to marry a non-Catholic. If the person is a non-Catholic Christian, this permission is called a “permission to enter into a mixed marriage.” If the person is a non-Christian, the permission is called a “dispensation from disparity of cult.” Those helping to prepare the couple for marriage can assist with the permission process.

if the permission is not granted, the marriage will not be recognize by the church.

Hi there,
Does anyone know the answer to this one… I was just speaking with an Eastern Orthodox friend of mine. Apparently she is currently not in good stading with her church because she married a Jewish man outside the church. Before she started dating him all her Catholic friends told her you could marry a non baptised person in the church as long as you promised to raise them in the church. After 3 years of dating him and getting engaged she found out from her church that she was not allowed to marry a non-baptised person. So they had a protastant wedding. She is now considered not in good standing and can not recieve Holy Communion. Even though she attends every week and has baptised all of her children in the Eastern Orthodox church.
Why are we Catholics allowed to intermarry and it is considered valid, yet Eastern Ortodox may not, I thought they were very similiar in sacramental beliefs.
Is there anything my friend can do to get back in good standing? I could not imagine not being able to recieve the Holy Eucurist.
She has told me how much this hurts her. (was was very young and naive when she got married and did not relize she would be out of good standing when she married)
I would like to help her if I can. Is anyone here familiar with Eastern Orthodoxy and there rules???

 

[marlo]

As this answer of mine is based on the Latin view,
we are not automatically allowed to marry a non catholic or especially a non baptized person. Thus the term we are allowed to intermarry is quite incorrect. A Catholic Christian must first seek the approval of its Local Bishop for the marriage to be recognized by the church.

I believe all ancient church requires approval from the bishop for special issue such cases as this, however it seems that the EO does not have this procedure.

Taken from: usccb.org/laity/marriage/marriagefaqs.shtml

The Catholic must seek permission from the local bishop to marry a non-Catholic. If the person is a non-Catholic Christian, this permission is called a “permission to enter into a mixed marriage.” If the person is a non-Christian, the permission is called a “dispensation from disparity of cult.” Those helping to prepare the couple for marriage can assist with the permission process.

if the permission is not granted, the marriage will not be recognize by the church.

In your friends case, she did marry without the permission of the her church, Worst In a protestant church where its sacraments it not recognized and since the marriage is not valid, her relationship with her husband is living in fornication, thus she is not allowed to receive the Eucharist.

The same issue would happen to a catholic. To resolve this, they would need to go their bishop and ask the procedure for resolving this issue. Might require baptismal of her husband.

this link might be helpful to you, although such question as these should not be posted in the eastern catholic forum

aggreen.net/guidelines/guide04.html

Hi there,
Does anyone know the answer to this one… I was just speaking with an Eastern Orthodox friend of mine. Apparently she is currently not in good stading with her church because she married a Jewish man outside the church. Before she started dating him all her Catholic friends told her you could marry a non baptised person in the church as long as you promised to raise them in the church. After 3 years of dating him and getting engaged she found out from her church that she was not allowed to marry a non-baptised person. So they had a protastant wedding. She is now considered not in good standing and can not recieve Holy Communion. Even though she attends every week and has baptised all of her children in the Eastern Orthodox church.
Why are we Catholics allowed to intermarry and it is considered valid, yet Eastern Ortodox may not, I thought they were very similiar in sacramental beliefs.
Is there anything my friend can do to get back in good standing? I could not imagine not being able to recieve the Holy Eucurist.
She has told me how much this hurts her. (was was very young and naive when she got married and did not relize she would be out of good standing when she married)
I would like to help her if I can. Is anyone here familiar with Eastern Orthodoxy and there rules???

 

[puzzleannie]

Hi there,
Does anyone know the answer to this one… I was just speaking with an Eastern Orthodox friend of mine. Apparently she is currently not in good stading with her church because she married a Jewish man outside the church. Before she started dating him all her Catholic friends told her you could marry a non baptised person in the church as long as you promised to raise them in the church.

that was her first mistake, asking her friends instead of asking the priest who would be preparing her for marriage. She got half answers and half truths instead of pastoral counselling that would take into account everything she needed to know for a happy marriage in union with the Church.

She needs to visit her priest, the one in her church, not to friends, and see what she needs to do to reconcile and come into communion with her church. I doubt very much if advice on a Catholic forum is going to help her.

She was misinformed. For a Catholic to marry a non-Catholic or non-Christian is forbidden. It is a condition, however, for which a dispensation can be obtained (not automatic) for good and valid reason, and then only by the bishop, and only after pastoral counselling about the issues surrounding intermarriage, on on certain conditions binding upon the Catholic partner.

 

[SingleMomMonica]

goarch.org/archdiocese/departments/marriage/interfaith/marrynonchristians

Marriage From an Orthodox Perspective

From an Orthodox perspective, marriage is a lifestyle that facilitates both partners’ religious and spiritual journey. It also serves to cultivate their future children’s religious and spiritual development. For these reasons, for centuries Orthodox Canon Law discouraged intermarriage of any type. Moreover, Orthodox faithful who chose to intermarry forfeited their sacramental privileges.

Interreligious Marriages

Conversely, the Orthodox Church continues to hold to a more jaundiced view of interreligious marriage. It believes that the differences between both partners’ belief systems preclude individual, couple and family religious and spiritual development. As a result, it continues to discourage its faithful from entering interreligious marriages. Orthodox Christians who decide to enter an interreligious marriage (a) will be unable to wed in the Orthodox Church, and (b) lose their sacramental privileges.

In light of the growing numbers of interreligious marriages that Orthodox faithful are entering, some Orthodox theologians have called for a reexamination of the Church’s position regarding this issue. To date, nothing substantive has been done to address this subject. However, if the numbers of interreligious marriages continue to grow, I suspect this issue will command more of the Church’s attention in the future.

Individual Spouse’s and Couple’s Response

When interreligious engaged spouses and couples have obtained the above information, here are some of their typical reactions.
Many have reported experiencing some initial confusion, distress and anger. These emotions have compelled a substantial number to seek more information. While many will ultimately disagree with what they find, their efforts will assist them in obtaining a clearer understanding of the consequences of their choices.

A few couples have postponed their wedding date in an effort to reexamine their decision to enter an interreligious marriage. In these cases, some non-Orthodox partner’s have chosen to consider conversion.

Some Orthodox Christian partners have determined to attend the Divine Liturgy without participating in the sacraments. Many of these individuals have also determined to baptize their children in the Orthodox Church.

Others have left the Church. Many of these individuals continue to identify with their ethnic background, but no longer actively practice their Orthodox faith.

A few have chosen to write their Bishop for additional clarification and guidance.

 

[agiosotheos]

Hi there,
Does anyone know the answer to this one… I was just speaking with an Eastern Orthodox friend of mine. Apparently she is currently not in good stading with her church because she married a Jewish man outside the church. Before she started dating him all her Catholic friends told her you could marry a non baptised person in the church as long as you promised to raise them in the church. After 3 years of dating him and getting engaged she found out from her church that she was not allowed to marry a non-baptised person. So they had a protastant wedding. She is now considered not in good standing and can not recieve Holy Communion. Even though she attends every week and has baptised all of her children in the Eastern Orthodox church.

That is the unfortunate side of taking advice from people of other church’s about the practice of your own church who actually don’t know about your own church and are speaking of the practices of their own church and assuming their are the same in yours.

Why are we Catholics allowed to intermarry and it is considered valid, yet Eastern Ortodox may not,

Well, this is really complex. Not only is it a matter of who you marry but also where you marry. For one thing, the person that an EO person marries must be a Christian, even while sometimes they don’t have to be also EO. So the fact that she married a Jew is problem #1. Secondly, the fact that she married in a Protestant service also renders it invalid. Even if she was married in a “Catholic” church, it would still be invalid. She has to be married in an EO church for it to be considered valid. So even if she had happened to have married a Romanist in a Roman church, it still would have been considered invalid.

I thought they were very similiar in sacramental beliefs.

And that naivete is precisely what has gotten her into this problem. We have numerous differences in conceptions of the Sacraments. For one, you in the Roman church teach that a person can be Baptized by any Christian, sometimes even by non-Christians. We teach otherwise, that a person can be validly Baptized by a lay person, but it must be a real lay person, as in a Baptized and Chrismated EO Christian. Second, we teach that the fullness of Baptism can be lost by apostasy, and so the fullness of Baptism can be restored through repeated Chrismation. We believe that in Confession a penitent is confessing to God and not the Priest. We believe that Matrimony is administered by a Priest rather than the couple, so a valid marriage cannot exist outside the EOC. We believe that Holy Orders can also be lost by heresy or apostasy, or that the Church can even willingly laicize a clergymen. We assert the Real Presence, but not transubstantiation. So on and so forth.

Is there anything my friend can do to get back in good standing?

There are two possibilities if she wants to get back into good standing with a priest who upholds the canons in a rigorous fashion. She must either be done with things with her husband, or her husband must convert to Christianity, be Baptized, and receive the Sacred Mystery of Matrimony with her in an EO church.

She has told me how much this hurts her. (was was very young and naive when she got married and did not relize she would be out of good standing when she married)

She should have consulted her priest. That’s the bottom line with everything in the EOC.

Is anyone here familiar with Eastern Orthodoxy and there rules???

Yes, if you have any more questions, do not hesitate to ask me.

 

[agiosotheos]

That would require the conversion of the RCC and restoration of Apostolic Succession within it.

 

[agiosotheos]

That is not the commonly held belief amongst the EO.

Is Papist preferable?

 

[agiosotheos]

They may recognize their validity, but not their efficacy. Recognizing the validity of a church’s order’s in the EOC is not an indication of recognition of Apostolic Succession. And I can assure you, even amongst those who recognize the validity of Roman orders, their efficacy is almost universally denied.

 

[Rachel_Malloy]

Terms of derision, derogatory remarks, baiting, and inflammatory statements are prohibited.
Avoid categorizing people by a term which could be considered derogatory (e.g., Nazi or neocon) unless they have embraced that title. In which case, you may qualify them with the term as long as you preface it with the word “avowed.” Posters are asked to use their best judgement when posting articles using such terms. Do not abbreviate terms.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=162027

The term Papist is often used derogatory in this neck of the woods… be VERY cautious when using this term and similar ones.