marriage

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How do my fiancee and I get married? I am a catholic who was marrried in the church before and since divorced. She is not catholic but was married in the catholic church. We know that we can be married by a justice of the peace, however we would like to married by someone of faith. What do we do? please help!

-- andy smith (adrew75@hotmail.com), May 26, 2003

Answers

-you are both already married...

-- Daniel Hawkenberry (dlm@catholic.org), May 27, 2003.

Let me clarify, we are both currently divorced. Where or what can we do to be married my someone of faith

-- andy (adrew75@hotmail.com), May 27, 2003.

If you currently attend church, that would be a logical place to begin your inquiry. If you don't currently attend church, but your engagement has started to make you realize that perhaps you should, then you and your fiancee should find a church and start attending together.

If you neither attend church currently nor plan on attending in the future, you have several options:

http://www.vivalasvegasweddings.com/live_internet_weddings.htm offers the services of a minister.

One of your friends could become an ordained minister in just 3 minutes -- FREE!

A Unitarian Universalist minister wouldn't have any problems officiating at your marriage. They even perform "civil unions" for those who don't feel bound by that old fashioned "one man, one woman" rule.

If you would like to be married in the Catholic Church, please see the first paragraph above. You should be aware that both you and your fiancee would have to go through the annulment process, which isn't for the faint of heart or the weak of faith.

-- Mark (aujus_1066@yahoo.com), May 27, 2003.


Dear Andy,

What David (above) meant is that the Catholic Church does not recognize divorce; therefore, if you were validly married in the Church, you are still married in the eyes of the Church and therefore are not free to marry someone else.

That may sound harsh, but it is based on the teaching of Jesus Christ that divorce is not allowed (see Mark 10:11-12, "And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

If you choose to go to a justice of the peace or a non-Catholic minister, that's your call, but please understand that your new marriage will not be recognized as valid by the Catholic Church. Sorry.

-- Theist Gal :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), May 27, 2003.


Andy,

My soon to be husband and I are going through a very similar thing. I have not been married before but he has. We very very hurt to find that even with cases in which his spouce committed adultery and abandoned my soon to be husband, the Catholic church would still not allow us to marry. People like Theist gal, who are probably speaking with out any personal knowlege on the subject, do not take anything into consideration, like the Catholic church. I hope that you have not lost the feeling that you have had for the church. I know that we are tring not to. However it is possible to have a friend marry you, in fact we are asking a friend to become ordained to marry us.

Good luck

-- Chrisitne (schatzygirl@hotmail.com), July 12, 2003.



One of these guys may be willing to officiate at a wedding:

Rent-a-priest :-)

It would not be a valid sacramental marriage, so a JP would be as good.

-- Stephen (StephenLynn999@msn.com), July 12, 2003.


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