she should begin with the pastor of her current parish, who will guide her on this.I have a question for my niece who is planning on getting married, She and her fiance are both practicing Catholics. The problem is that they both live in Europe but want the wedding to take place in the U.S. Her parents are in the process of moving, so the wedding will not take place at her parish. How can she obtain permission to get married in a Catholic church where she is not a parishioner here in the U.S?
I have the opposite experience (going to Europe) but here’s what I experienced:I have a question for my niece who is planning on getting married, She and her fiance are both practicing Catholics. The problem is that they both live in Europe but want the wedding to take place in the U.S. Her parents are in the process of moving, so the wedding will not take place at her parish. How can she obtain permission to get married in a Catholic church where she is not a parishioner here in the U.S?
Where is she planning on getting married, what parish? That would be the starting point.Thank you for taking the time to answer my query. As a point of clarification, can the mother-of-the-bride-to-be contact her diocese directly, or, must she go through her local parish?
I don’t see why not. Worst case, the diocese will just tell you to call the local parish, right? But I don’t know why you’d want to do that. It seems more appropriate to have the couple contact their local parish or for you to contact the parish where they’ll be married.Thank you for taking the time to answer my query. As a point of clarification, can the mother-of-the-bride-to-be contact her diocese directly, or, must she go through her local parish?
Based on my experience down here, priests and chanceries are more apt to want to deal directly with the party getting married than with the relatives. I remember that in a similar situation, the Cathedral rector plainly stated that he deals with the couple, not with the parents/future in-laws.Thank you for taking the time to answer my query. As a point of clarification, can the mother-of-the-bride-to-be contact her diocese directly, or, must she go through her local parish?
On the other hand, in a complicated situation like this, simply having a local person contact the parish first can smooth the way.Based on my experience down here, priests and chanceries are more apt to want to deal directly with the party getting married than with the relatives. I remember that in a similar situation, the Cathedral rector plainly stated that he deals with the couple, not with the parents/future in-laws.
Phemie, our area is on the Texas-Mexico border. We get these cases quite a bit (and these are not just folks from Nuevo Laredo wanting to cross to get married). While the parents may make the initial inquiry, the priests still want to talk to the actual couple.On the other hand, in a complicated situation like this, simply having a local person contact the parish first can smooth the way.
We often have parents contact us for information for their kids who live away and want to come home to get married. We will book a date based on the parent’s call and have them have their child call us for more. It’s not rare to do everything that must be done locally with a parent and only having the kids show up a week prior to the wedding.
Usually when someone approaches us for a pre-nup investigation and marriage preparation for a wedding they want celebrated in a place other than our parish, they have already done all the arranging with the parish in which they want to get married and the name of the priest who is dealing with it in the ‘away parish’ is included in the information we send to our diocesan office.
I don’t think anyone is saying that the mother of the bride or a relative should be the only point of contact in planning the wedding, just that to get the process started since the bride is out of the country that the mother or another relative could be the first point of contact to get the ball rolling. I think the OP mentioned the bride is in Europe, the time difference could be the factor to why the bride isn’t doing the initial footwork herself. Sometimes its even hard to make a phone connection to call home, let alone trying to gather this kind of information.Phemie, our area is on the Texas-Mexico border. We get these cases quite a bit (and these are not just folks from Nuevo Laredo wanting to cross to get married). While the parents may make the initial inquiry, the priests still want to talk to the actual couple.
Ma’am,I have a question for my niece who is planning on getting married, She and her fiance are both practicing Catholics. The problem is that they both live in Europe but want the wedding to take place in the U.S. Her parents are in the process of moving, so the wedding will not take place at her parish. How can she obtain permission to get married in a Catholic church where she is not a parishioner here in the U.S?