Which other religions can Catholics marry?

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I had asked my Parish Priest about what other religious denominations can a Catholic marry into and he had mentioned a few in which I can’t remember. Does anyone know this answer?

I thought Catholics were only supposed to marry Catholics? Even if this is not the case, I’d still like to know the above question.

Thanks 🙂
 
If you marry a Christian that is not Catholic, that is technically allowed as long as you vow to have you children be raised Catholic.
It would be better if you marry a Catholic- it makes the sacrament that much better!
OR if you were planning on marrying someone who was not Catholic, maybe they could convert through the RCIA program!
So I’m pretty sure you can marry non-denominational christians, methodists, baptists, pres., etc… Not sure about Jehovahs witnesses or Mormons though.
 
The answer is a little complex. In its simplest form a Catholic can marry a person of any faith. Then come the howevers and the buts.
  1. The non-Catholic must believe in the permanency of marriage. That’s not always easy for people of other belief systems.
  2. The non-Catholic must also believe that marriage has two purposes: love between the partners and the procreation of children, without artificial interference. This is also a problem for some Protestants and Reformed Jews. They do not subscribe to natural family planning. Muslims and other Asian peoples do subscribe to procreation.
  3. The non-Catholic must accept to raise the children born to such a marriage as Catholics until they reach the age of maturity when they can choose for themselves.
  4. Finally, the non-Catholic must be free to marry. If he or she has been married to a person of his or her faith in a marriage in that faith, that marriage is valid.
This does get complex, but not impossible.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
kristanl said:
If you marry a Christian that is not Catholic, that is technically allowed as long as you vow to have you children be raised Catholic.
It would be better if you marry a Catholic- it makes the sacrament that much better!
OR if you were planning on marrying someone who was not Catholic, maybe they could convert through the RCIA program!
So I’m pretty sure you can marry non-denominational christians, methodists, baptists, pres., etc… Not sure about Jehovahs witnesses or Mormons though.
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Thanks for your reply, kristanl 🙂 I’m very interested in the “etc…” part as well… I was even told about protestants? but not ordinary protestants…not sure what it’s called, something like new protestants? Whichever the case, what’s the difference between them and would Catholics be able to marry them?
 
JReducation said:
The answer is a little complex. In its simplest form a Catholic can marry a person of any faith. Then come the howevers and the buts.
  1. The non-Catholic must believe in the permanency of marriage. That’s not always easy for people of other belief systems.
  2. The non-Catholic must also believe that marriage has two purposes: love between the partners and the procreation of children, without artificial interference. This is also a problem for some Protestants and Reformed Jews. They do not subscribe to natural family planning. Muslims and other Asian peoples do subscribe to procreation.
  3. The non-Catholic must accept to raise the children born to such a marriage as Catholics until they reach the age of maturity when they can choose for themselves.
  4. Finally, the non-Catholic must be free to marry. If he or she has been married to a person of his or her faith in a marriage in that faith, that marriage is valid.
This does get complex, but not impossible.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Thank you for your answer, Br. JR, OSF 🙂 In reference to #5, even if a non-Catholic has been married and divorces, isn’t that marriage still not valid in the eyes of God? Just like if someone were to have a civil ceremony, it would not be valid to God.
 
catholicbbwny said:
Thank you for your answer, Br. JR, OSF 🙂 In reference to #5, even if a non-Catholic has been married and divorces, isn’t that marriage still not valid in the eyes of God? Just like if someone were to have a civil ceremony, it would not be valid to God.
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Your question is a good one. A marriage between people of the same faith in THAT faith, is usually valid. There is a caveat, that being that the person who entered the marriage entered it with the intent of remaining married and being open to having children. There are other obscure rules that apply in deciding if the marriage is valid or not. That is usually explored by the deacon or priest who is witnessing the Catholic wedding.

Not being a canonist, I won’t pretend to know every canon regarding validity. My area of theological expertise is Mysticism. I wish I could be of greater help.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
For it to be a sacremental marriage- you have to marry a baptized Christian. So there is your answer to the etc.
 
kristanl said:
For it to be a sacremental marriage- you have to marry a baptized Christian. So there is your answer to the etc.
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Not really, but you can marry a Jewish person and have a sacramental marriage in the Church. My son-in-law is Jewish and my daughter is Catholic. They were married in a Catholic wedding, by our Major Superior.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
Not really, but you can marry a Jewish person and have a sacramental marriage in the Church. My son-in-law is Jewish and my daughter is Catholic. They were married in a Catholic wedding, by our Major Superior.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Really? So the only thing the Jewish person has to do is agree to bring up their children Catholic? I don’t understand how a person of another faith, especially Jewish, can agree to that.
 
When I married my Catholic husband, I did not have to promise that the children would be raised Catholic. The priest who did our premarital counseling was very clear about this. He put the burden of promise on my husband and him alone since he was the Catholic. It was my husband’s promise to pass the faith onto his children. I was under no such requirement whatsoever. The priest did tell me that while I wasn’t obligated at all to “promote” or “encourage” any sort of Catholicism in our home, he did ask me to consider it, for the well being of the kids (less confusion, etc.).

And I did. I never had any intention of splitting up the faith of our home. It always seemed to me that kids raised with both faiths many times end up with none at all, and so I had already decided they would be raised Catholic and, since I wanted to be part of their faith formation, I would help my husband raise them in the Catholic faith. Eventually our oldest reached school age and I was the one who pressured my husband to put him in Catholic school. I had attended a school affilliated with my own church and felt it was best to have that consistency. When they were both school aged, we moved (military family) and I actually got a job at their new Catholic school. I have been married 14 years, taught at Catholic school for 5 years, and in 2 weeks will finally be received into the Catholic Church and receive my First Communion.

God had a plan for me - a plan I never would’ve guessed in a million years!
 
catholicbbwny said:
Really? So the only thing the Jewish person has to do is agree to bring up their children Catholic? I don’t understand how a person of another faith, especially Jewish, can agree to that.
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Three reasons come to mind:
a) To be Jewish does not require any particular belief, just a Jewish mother. (Some Jews hold that having either parent a Jew makes you a Jew.) After all, if your parents have you baptized Catholic, you’re a Catholic, even if they fail to raise you as one. If you are raised Catholic and fall away from your practice, you are still Catholic, too. A person who belongs to a faith nominally, or in a tribal rather than a directly practicing way, might be willing to cede the matter of family religious practice entirely to their partner, who cares about such things, since the first spouse cares not at all.

b) A person who wants to marry a Catholic might easily have deep respect for the Catholic faith without having all those things that would allow them, in good conscience, to become a Catholic. Perhaps they have not excluded the possibility of becoming Catholic, but aren’t ready to do it yet. Such a person might be quite willing to live in a wholly Catholic family.

c) A person who wants to marry a Catholic might be willing to make considerable sacrifices in order to marry that person. Marriage and parenting are a matter of give and take, and sometimes considerable give and take. Just as someone who loves Ireland might agree to move to Southeast Asia and never return, in order to marry the person they love, so might someone agree to give up the right to raise their children in the faith of their childhood. If it is the only way to have the spouse one has one’s heart set on, people make some fairly amazing sacrifices.

Also, if a Jewish man, for instance, marries a Catholic woman, he might know that his parents have beliefs that would not allow them to accept the children as Jews, since the children won’t have a Jewish mother. His Catholic in-laws, on the other hand, would accept the children as full Catholics. So things like that can sometimes come into play, too.

The problem is that what one fully accepts in theory can be a whole 'nother kettle of fish when the actual children arrive. You are right; it is not something to take lightly.

Truly, though, the greater problem is that the Catholic is taking on the practice of his or her faith and the teaching of the children on himself or herself alone, since he or she alone has the expertise. It can work, and can be far easier than having a Catholic spouse who is only a nominal Catholic or who is an openly and unabashedly disobedient Catholic, but it is a huge deal, and not easy at all.
 
Great post, Easter

My son-in-law and his family subscribe to the same belief that my parents did when I was born. I was born Jewish and converted over 35 years ago. The child is born into the faith of the mother. Therefore, it is the mother who decides if a child will be Catholic or Jewish. For a Catholic born child to be Jewish, there are some Jewish communities that require that the mother convert to Judaism. There are a few, who believe that the child can be a Jew if the father is Jewish. These are not many. there are also some who will accept the conversion of a Catholic to Judaism, after a process, just as we have the RCIA today.

In my in-law’s case, there is no question about the faith of the child. The big question is about the permanency of marriage and most Jews believe this too, though they do not believe in sacraments. However, they subscribe to covenant relationship, which is included in our theology of marraige. That does not pose a problem for a faithful Jewish male marrying a Catholic woman. The problem is more complex when it is a Jewish woman marrying a Catholic man.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
EasterJoy said:
Three reasons come to mind:
a) To be Jewish does not require any particular belief, just a Jewish mother. (Some Jews hold that having either parent a Jew makes you a Jew.) After all, if your parents have you baptized Catholic, you’re a Catholic, even if they fail to raise you as one. If you are raised Catholic and fall away from your practice, you are still Catholic, too. A person who belongs to a faith nominally, or in a tribal rather than a directly practicing way, might be willing to cede the matter of family religious practice entirely to their partner, who cares about such things, since the first spouse cares not at all.

b) A person who wants to marry a Catholic might easily have deep respect for the Catholic faith without having all those things that would allow them, in good conscience, to become a Catholic. Perhaps they have not excluded the possibility of becoming Catholic, but aren’t ready to do it yet. Such a person might be quite willing to live in a wholly Catholic family.

c) A person who wants to marry a Catholic might be willing to make considerable sacrifices in order to marry that person. Marriage and parenting are a matter of give and take, and sometimes considerable give and take. Just as someone who loves Ireland might agree to move to Southeast Asia and never return, in order to marry the person they love, so might someone agree to give up the right to raise their children in the faith of their childhood. If it is the only way to have the spouse one has one’s heart set on, people make some fairly amazing sacrifices.

Also, if a Jewish man, for instance, marries a Catholic woman, he might know that his parents have beliefs that would not allow them to accept the children as Jews, since the children won’t have a Jewish mother. His Catholic in-laws, on the other hand, would accept the children as full Catholics. So things like that can sometimes come into play, too.

The problem is that what one fully accepts in theory can be a whole 'nother kettle of fish when the actual children arrive. You are right; it is not something to take lightly.

Truly, though, the greater problem is that the Catholic is taking on the practice of his or her faith and the teaching of the children on himself or herself alone, since he or she alone has the expertise. It can work, and can be far easier than having a Catholic spouse who is only a nominal Catholic or who is an openly and unabashedly disobedient Catholic, but it is a huge deal, and not easy at all.
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I know this is an old topic but recently I’ve been faced with a dilemma and I’m turning to this forum for some advise and stumble upon this thread.

I’m from a Catholic family and been helping out in the youth ministry in my local church. Few years ago, I started a relationship with a Muslim until now. The relationship is so much so that we would share everything, be open, finish each other’s sentences, helping each other to grow, caring for each other (not just about caring if anyone is ill and such, but caring for each other in good and bad times), when someone is in trouble or feeling down we would be having that feeling that something is wrong and it will always be right, we know what each other are thinking, etc…And even looking after her little niece like it was our own, all of which we work well with complementing each other on what we do. The relationship has been going on for about 3 years. In these 3 years too, we’ve been talking about our religion as a hold-back for us to move even further (commitment of matrimony). Everything else clicks except religion (and with that comes parents). Even so, we did give each other room to go out with other people of our own religion. And even took time off from the relationship to think about it. However, none would be the right one just as both of us feel about each other. It’s not just about the feeling but everything about each other that we love about. To say there’s no one else to compare, we agree we can’t seem to find anyone else to compare because we can’t find anyone else with the qualities that we love about each other. For our parents, both would be sad about each other converting. And the thought did cross my mind about converting. For friends, some would approve, some would not. At some point, we would wonder what really is relationship and why is religion the only hold-back.

So, I’m asking for advise and even prayers of what shall we do in this dilemma.
 
Don’t do it! It’s a grave danger to your faith. Your Catholic Faith is the greatest gift you have. St. Paul says do not become yolked with a nonbeliever.

Hold out for a Catholic wife. If she loves everything about you, then will she become Catholic? If you convert to the Muslim religion, you reject Christ for a woman. That’s very sad.
 
catholicbbwny said:
I had asked my Parish Priest about what other religious denominations can a Catholic marry into and he had mentioned a few in which I can’t remember. Does anyone know this answer?

I thought Catholics were only supposed to marry Catholics? Even if this is not the case, I’d still like to know the above question.

Thanks 🙂
Click to expand...
Canon Law:

CHAPTER VI : MIXED MARRIAGES

Can. 1124 Without the express permission of the competent authority, marriage is prohibited between two baptised persons, one of whom was baptised in the catholic Church or received into it after baptism and has not defected from it by a formal act, the other of whom belongs to a Church or ecclesial community not in full communion with the catholic Church.

Can. 1125 The local Ordinary can grant this permission if there is a just and reasonable cause. He is not to grant it unless the following conditions are fulfilled:

1° the catholic party is to declare that he or she is prepared to remove dangers of defecting from the faith, and is to make a sincere promise to do all in his or her power in order that all the children be baptised and brought up in the catholic Church;

2° the other party is to be informed in good time of these promises to be made by the catholic party, so that it is certain that he or she is truly aware of the promise and of the obligation of the catholic party

3° both parties are to be instructed about the purposes and essential properties of marriage, which are not to be excluded by either contractant.

Can. 1126 It is for the Episcopal Conference to prescribe the manner in which these declarations and promises, which are always required, are to be made, and to determine how they are to be established in the external forum, and how the non-catholic party is to be informed of them.

Can. 1127 §1 The provisions of can. 1108 are to be observed in regard to the form to be used in a mixed marriage. If, however, the catholic party contracts marriage with a non-catholic party of oriental rite, the canonical form of celebration is to be observed for lawfulness only; for validity, however, the intervention of a sacred minister is required, while observing the other requirements of law.

§2 If there are grave difficulties in the way of observing the canonical form, the local Ordinary of the catholic party has the right to dispense from it in individual cases, having however consulted the Ordinary of the place of the celebration of the marriage; for validity, however, some public form of celebration is required. It is for the Episcopal Conference to establish norms whereby this dispensation may be granted in a uniform manner.

§3 It is forbidden to have, either before or after the canonical celebration in accordance with §1, another religious celebration of the same marriage for the purpose of giving or renewing matrimonial consent. Likewise, there is not to be a religious celebration in which the catholic assistant and a non-catholic minister, each performing his own rite, ask for the consent of the parties.

Can. 1128 Local Ordinaries and other pastors of souls are to see to it that the catholic spouse and the children born of a mixed marriage are not without the spiritual help needed to fulfil their obligations; they are also to assist the spouses to foster the unity of conjugal and family life.

Can. 1129 The provisions of cann. 1127 and 1128 are to be applied also to marriages which are impeded by the impediment of disparity of worship mentioned in can. 1086 §1.
 
JReducation said:
Not really, but you can marry a Jewish person and have a sacramental marriage in the Church. My son-in-law is Jewish and my daughter is Catholic. They were married in a Catholic wedding, by our Major Superior.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Brother, are you sure that this is correct? It has always been my understanding that one can enter into a valid but non-sacramental marriage with a non-baptized person. For a marriage to be sacramental, both parties must be baptized. The Church recognizes both natural marriages and sacramental marriages. That’s why the Pauline privilege is a theological possibility… a natural marriage can, under extraordinary circumstances, be dissolved (hence why divorce was a possibility under the Old Covenant), but a valid sacramental marriage can never ever be dissolved (except by death).
 
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