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 ?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here we go......

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!

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

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.

Why only give critics to Catholic Church.... why not generalize it to other religious sects. Catholic religion here in US is treat same as other religious sect, not like in the Philippines, which is highly respected. Merely because, dominantly Filipinos are Catholics. You can easily press charge to the molester here in US. US even have good law protecting woman and children, not like in the Philippines where there's an existence of law with poor execution.

And I am not acting blindfolded to what is going on in Catholic Church. Yes, there might be that kind of incident. "Might" because I haven't know a real one, all I know are hearsay and written criticism. But it happens not because they are catholic, it happens because they are human, with will and certain desire. No one can control one's mind except the one who owns it. Catholic church did actions corresponding to the actual situation. Catholic church have its flaw like all others. But who we are to condemn, we also commit mistakes. Nobody is perfect, that's why morality rules.

And by the way, I am not defending what you so-called priest molesters, I am defending my faith, and have it respected, as other's faith being respected.

As for the OP, my apology with my postings not relevant to your query. I am just giving insights with americans trying to become smartass.


And by the way, you should not only pertain to Catholic leaders who commit those kind of mistakes.... ought to be shot.... you should also includes politicians... not only stealing money from your pockets...... but also molesting, abusing and using minor and defend less people.

arch & cel

LOL - Catholics are Christians (certainly you knew that?!?)

I've never heard of a "Catholic Chapel" but if you want to be married in the Catholic Church (the sacrament of marriage) most all parishes will require both bride and groom to be Catholic of course. And most do have a 6-month preparation process. My church was very understanding of our situation with marriage required within 90 days of entry and we worked out an accelerated schedule and were married about 2.5 months after entry in the Church.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

This is a warning to refrain from making anymore judgemental posts in this thread. Anyone ignoring this warning will have their account suspended. Please remain on topic. Thank you.

Thanks for people's suggestions.

What I meant by "Catholic Chapel" was just a small Catholic church rather than a giant cathedral. Our wedding will be small 15-20 people.

We decided to have a civil wedding first when she arrives but we still want to have a marriage ceremony in a Catholic church somewhere nice where we can invite family.

I'm hoping that the fact that we will already be married will help us bypass some of the Catholic restrictions and we can just celebrate the ceremony for the family in a Catholic church site without jumping through many hoops.

I'm looking around for possible locations now a bit even though we won't be ready for the wedding day until some time next year when she arrives.

That will be your best bet. I think it might be a little easier if you are just renewing your vows. All you can do is talk to the priest there and see what they say about it. Honestly you know by far the easiest way to make it happen is to convert to catholic.

I know my wife was worried when i came down to the philippines that we wouldnt be able to get married in the church. Despite the steps we had to take, we got it all done in plenty of time before the wedding.

Things will be ok for you and your fiancee. I'm sure that you will be able to renew your vows in a catholic church.

Shirr and I want to renew our vows in the next few years when we get back to the Philippines. I also am hoping that a simple renewal will be able to side step many of the requirements there in the Phils...

Not sure if it will work out that way but getting the required 21 days to meet the churches requirements would not be possible for me...

-Phil

Hi , I just wanna share our stories, my husband and I, married in the Catholic Parish here in our place in MI, my husband is not a Catholic, he is protestant/Christian. I didn`t give up my religion when he was still courting me, my husband knew that I am a devout Catholic, and I told him if u can`t marry me in the Catholic church, I guess we are not meant to be, that drives him to keep on looking different Catholic churches when he already filed for my petition.Even I told him to marry me in Catholic church, I did n`t insist him to be converted all I want is our wedding should take place in the Catholic Church.He can still go in his religion if he wants.

I remember we don`t have our NOA2 that time, he keep on calling Catholic churches here, but some of the Catholic church said that " they can`t marry us , he has to to be converted first in the Catholic faith, and he has to undergo 6 months of catechesis and be baptized after. That can`t be because we only have 90 days to get married. . He did`nt give up searching churches here and he finally found one , a catholic church here, just 10 mins away from our house, he did all the inquries and we were accepted in the church, the pastor was touch by my husband stories telling him that he is not Catholic but we want to get married in Catholic church because of me, he told the priest that I am still in the Phils that time, since then he often communicating with the priest . I was still in the Philippines he already send me Marriage Application to fill up from the Parish, and I included that in my interview in USEM.

When I arrived here, just a day after , we set appoitnment with the priest. We were told that details of our wedding. We undergo, Marriage is a Decision Seminar, Marriage Counselling, Natural Family Planning, and we have 3 Sundays for wedding announcement inside the mass, it is telling the public that he is free to marry me, making sure there is no objection but he was not forced to be converted in the Catholic Faith. During the wedding ceremony the Priest just told my husband during in the communion part in our wedding, he can`t give him the holy bread and wine because he is not a Catholic he will just cross his 2 arms infront of his chest , as reverence to the sacred hosts.

Since we get married in the Catholic church, my husband always go with me to Sunday mass in the church we married, he can`t still receive communion because he is not converted yet. But just last Sunday he undergo the RCIA CLASS , that is the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, I am so happy that finally he will be converting in Roman Catholic Faith and the Priest who marry us was overwhelming that I influenced him to be converted. I knew that God touched his heart to be Catholic , I am just instument, I am sure this wil be our guiding light to a successful married life....

You guys can do it too... Good luck !!!

Thanks for your comments. After looking for a few days I did find a Catholic church that would marry us without many restrictions. We just have to attend some pre-marriage classes with a local priest. Then we take a paper with us that we have completed that and we are free to marry in the church we want to.

The wedding coordinator at the Catholic church was very nice about my questions and concerns. I'm excited for our wedding next year and wish the day was here already

We were also married in a Catholic Church (or should I say chapel since we preferred a small but solemn wedding). My then fiance explained to our Senior Pastor (Monsignor) about our situation (me being under K1 and all that). The church waived most of the requirements but I had to make sure that I will have an original copy of my Baptismal Certificate, Certificate of No Marriage and 2 affidavits from friends or relatives that will vouch that I was born and raised a Catholic and still do... As soon as I got here, we met with the Msgr. and submitted my documents. Two weeks before we got married, they had our wedding bann in our bulletin and it was also printed on a Sunday paper. Since my then fiance's family's either Protestant or Church of Christ, our priest even simplified the ceremony for them to understand what's going on.

BTW, my husband's a convert... He became a Catholic back in 2001. That is why we didn't really have too much of a problem getting married under Catholic's rites.

A Catholic is always able to marry a non-Catholic so long as the person is a baptized Christian. Even if both are Catholic, the premarital preparation is required by priests throughout the world. There is no advantage at all to the non-Catholic converting to facilitate marriage; even that process takes awhile.

No one has ever said that being Catholic is easy -- there is a commitment by faithful believers that is unlike any other in Christianity, based entirely on the Gospel message. But that's beside the point here. The sacraments are more than just ceremonies and require in-depth participation, not just by rehearsing.

Hi my wife and I looked at doing a Catholic wedding and it appears to be much easier if you are both Catholic if not then the next easiest is that the non Catholic has never been married and divorced. If you have had a divorce and want to get married in a Catholic church you have to go through a lengthy annullment procedure. To me being non Catholic and divorced it basically means you have to pay the Church a lot of money. It also takes more time than most people have.

If the two of you are already married and want to just go through the motions again in a Catholic church and renew your vows there are still some hoops you have to jump though but it may be possible. You need to find a friendly Priest.