Non-Catholic to marry Catholic Filipina in US

[lbounds 16]

So I'm a Christian and my bride to be is Catholic. She wants to be married in a Catholic chapel in the US which is perfectly fine with me.

I'd assumed that it would be easy to find a Cathlolic chapel in a nice city. I had the idea we would take a short trip to Colorado or some place nice, meet family there for the weekend and have our service in the Catholic chapel.

Now that I start looking for places I see it's not as easy as all that. The several Catholic chapels I looked at that do weddings both in Colorado and California have all kinds of requirements and restrictions. Not like a Christian wedding.

Some of them require you to be a member of the local parish or bring your own priest with you ! Some of them had other requirements like if I am a Christian to show a baptism certificate. I've been baptised at least 3 times in my life but don't know if I have a paper certificate. Some of them required a letter from your local priest. One Catholic chapel required attending a marriage seminar first. All of them I think required 6 months advanced notice, which isn't possible to know the date for me yet.

Well after everything else we go through I actually thought arranging a wedding in a Catholic chapel would be one of the easy parts.

I'd like to get married in a Catholic chapel some time after my wife to be gets here next year...

Anyone gone through this before and have any suggestions on making that part simpler for a Catholic wedding in the USA ?

[Kevin-n-Merlaine 14]

Honestly, not being smart...just convert! If you're not Catholic and have proof that you are, I don't think you're going to find any Catholic church that's going to marry you.

[ellmvl 1]

Yes, both parties should be a catholic in order to be wed in a catholic church. If you were baptized already in a catholic church, you try to request for a baptismal certificate from the parish where you had your baptism. If not, then you still have the time to be baptized in a catholic church before your wife will get there. Once you are baptize you can visit your nearest parish, attend the mass, get to know your parish priest and then later you can request for a letter from your parish priest that you can get married in any catholic church. As far as i know, they require this to make sure you haven't been married in a catholic church before. And yes the church will also require you to attend the pre-nuptial seminar to discuss about the sacrament of matrimony. I don't know how long is the pre-nup seminar here in the US but in the Phils. it took us 2 days. I suggest you inquire about this so you can plan ahead of time. If time is really an issue, try to talk to your priest and i am sure they will do what they can for you guys.

Congratulations and best wishes to both of you.

[mrsean 4]

yes you can but you might not have time right away so you have a civil marriage with local judge and then you do the seminar class for the catholic and then it can take time for the wedding but at least your love has what she always wanted i know friends that had to do it that way

[philmae83 0]

baptismal and confirmation certificates are required from both parties if you are going to get married in a catholic church

[Rocky_nBullwinkle 6]

We wanted to get marry in a catholic church too. We are both catholics, but the church wanted us to attend classes for 6 months before they can perform the ceremony. We didn't have time for this procrastination since we got only 90 days. We got married at the court house instead.

[adiiann 163]

It's not necessary that both of you should be catholic. My husband's brother-in-law is not catholic but married in catholic with my sister-in-law.

I have my traditional catholic church wedding. And, yes, it's so complicated here. You need to have some sort of psychological exam, counseling, and attend pre-cana.

But you can inquire in church near your place. Ask their requirements, and tell them your situation, they might help you on what to do with the process. But the process took a bit longer. In my situation, my husband have our schedule six months before the wedding.

[jsnearline 2]

Try calling the offices of the Catholic diocese you live in and explain the situation to them. Tell them you'd rather have a simple wedding officiated by a Cathoic priest than resort to marriage by a civil official and see what they say.

You could also look for a parish run by the Jesuits. They seem to know all the rules and the ways to get around them when presented with a good reason to do so. That's what my wife and I did. We were allowed to marry less than two months after her arrival here. We still had to fulfill the marriage preparation class requirement, so it made for a tight schedule leading up to our wedding, but it was worth it to start our marriage in church instead of at the courthouse.

Worst case, you could get married in the Christian church you are currently a member of, then join a Catholic parish and have your marriage blessed by a priest (otherwise known as convalidation). That was our backup plan.

Edited November 3, 2009 by jsnearline

[Scott and Mhay 57]

I got married to my wife in the philippines..she is catholic and i am not...yet at least. I dont think you will be able to be married in a catholic church in the US. There was a lot of stuff i had to do just to be able to marry my wife in a catholic church. There was paperwork we had to do for mixed marriage and the arch bishop had to sign the paperwork so we could get married. This was on the priest's recommendation after an interview with him.

I'm not going to say it is impossible, but it will take a lot of work to do it. Good luck and congrats on the wedding.

[tallcoolone 102]

Catholics,

What a strange and weird religion. They seem to turn a deaf ear on all the children the Priest Sexually Abuse, but they are all about the rules when it comes to getting married.

My Opinion:

Have her become a Christian

[adiiann 163]

Catholics,

What a strange and weird religion. They seem to turn a deaf ear on all the children the Priest Sexually Abuse, but they are all about the rules when it comes to getting married.

My Opinion:

Have her become a Christian

You know what, you are the most dumbass person I ever know here in visajourney. You comprise of what I known as an idiot american. You don't have respect at all.

Yes! You are entitle with your own opinion but it doesn't mean giving you privilege to humiliate and disrespect other people's belief.

If you are against of Catholic, ignore and shut-up your crappy mouth.

And.. oh.. by the way, make a good research if you know how to. There are more religious non-Catholic leaders that abuse and makes people's life miserable here in US which lead most of them to atheism or cult.

Catholic priests are human.... they are capable of getting mistakes. You don't have deep understanding of our religion, and you don't know how those things deal by our religion.

[jom 4]

Here we go......

[SnME 3]

Catholic priests are human.... they are capable of getting mistakes. You don't have deep understanding of our religion, and you don't know how those things deal by our religion.

Molesting or abusing a child is not just a simple mistake...

Those people that do that ought to be shot.

Instead, The Catholic church tends to just 'transfer' them to somewhere else and then hide the facts about what happened...

It is VERY clear how the Catholic church 'deals' with these offenders.

Try pulling your head out of the sand so you can see!

[PhiLandShiR 18]

Yup, religion and politics.... My favorite topics.

Here we go......

[jsnearline 2]

The OP didn't ask for opinions of whether his desire to marry in a Catholic Church is a choice all VJ members would approve of. He was looking for advice on how to go about it. Please don't hijack the thread. If you want to talk about the priest sex abuse scandal, then take it to the Off Topic forum.

Edited November 3, 2009 by jsnearline