Catholic Wedding in the Philippines

[dan.and.audrey 2]

Hello! My husband and I had a civil wedding here in Austin. However, we are planning to go back to the Philippines for a church wedding for my family, relatives and friends there. My mom has already started making arrangements with the church re: the wedding requirements. One of the requirements is to have an interview with the bishop at least 1 month before the wedding date (they said it's got something to do with the marriage bans). According to the church lady there, they strictly follow the NO INTERVIEW, NO MARRIAGE rule. They don't make any exceptions. Now our problem is my husband can only be there for 2 weeks because that's the amount of time allotted for his vacation leave. If he takes a vacation leave for 1 month or more, he may get in trouble at work. Is it really a requirement to have the interview 1 month before the wedding? Can anything be done about our situation? I hope you can help me.

Thank you in advance!

[Scott and Mhay 57]

Ummm you are already married, so it would be just a reaffirmation ceremony. When Mhay and I got married we did have to do an interview with the priest and he wrote a letter of recommendation for the Arch Bishop of her province and we had to go to get him to sign off on the wedding. (this was for a mixed religion marriage...I'm not catholic...yet)

[MI.PI 7]

Hello! My husband and I had a civil wedding here in Austin. However, we are planning to go back to the Philippines for a church wedding for my family, relatives and friends there. My mom has already started making arrangements with the church re: the wedding requirements. One of the requirements is to have an interview with the bishop at least 1 month before the wedding date (they said it's got something to do with the marriage bans). According to the church lady there, they strictly follow the NO INTERVIEW, NO MARRIAGE rule. They don't make any exceptions. Now our problem is my husband can only be there for 2 weeks because that's the amount of time allotted for his vacation leave. If he takes a vacation leave for 1 month or more, he may get in trouble at work. Is it really a requirement to have the interview 1 month before the wedding? Can anything be done about our situation? I hope you can help me.

Thank you in advance!

Not necessarily true.

We're having our wedding next month and we'll have the interview when we arrive 1st week of May (barely 2 weeks before the wedding). We were actually told the same thing when we inquired about the requirements but I told them we cannot be there early enough. I asked if I can just email them the scanned copy of the documents they need and just have the interview when we arrive and they agreed to it. Maybe you can ask your mom to explain the situation and they should be able to give you some options. Do you have the list of requirements/paperworks? I can email them to you if you want, just PM me.

[MI.PI 7]

Ummm you are already married, so it would be just a reaffirmation ceremony. When Mhay and I got married we did have to do an interview with the priest and he wrote a letter of recommendation for the Arch Bishop of her province and we had to go to get him to sign off on the wedding. (this was for a mixed religion marriage...I'm not catholic...yet)

No it's not just a reaffirmation of ceremony. The catholic church do not recognize the civil wedding as a valid marriage that is why they have all these requirements which everyone has to comply with (regardless whether civilly married or not)...actually they have different sets of requirements for mixed-religion marriage (like what you and Mhay had) and for couples who are both catholics, they also have other (additional) requirements if one of the couple is a foreigner.

Congratulations by the way on Mhay's visa approval

Edited April 15, 2010 by MI.PI

[JSVP08 3]

wow! i find this useful as we're planning the same when we go home to pi. am surprised at this interview requirement, something to think about.

thank u for this thread....it will help us on our planned pi wedding.

[Scott and Mhay 57]

yeah we had to attend a seminar too at the church....2 different days

[dan.and.audrey 2]

Not necessarily true.

We're having our wedding next month and we'll have the interview when we arrive 1st week of May (barely 2 weeks before the wedding). We were actually told the same thing when we inquired about the requirements but I told them we cannot be there early enough. I asked if I can just email them the scanned copy of the documents they need and just have the interview when we arrive and they agreed to it. Maybe you can ask your mom to explain the situation and they should be able to give you some options. Do you have the list of requirements/paperworks? I can email them to you if you want, just PM me.

My mom already talked to them but they still won't agree. Anyway, what you told me has given me hope. I'm thinking of calling them myself to explain the situation. Wish me luck! Thanks!

Edited April 16, 2010 by dan.and.audrey

[MI.PI 7]

My mom already talked to them but they still won't agree. Anyway, what you told me has given me hope. I'm thinking of calling them myself to explain the situation. Wish me luck! Thanks!

Hmmm...they should be able to give you some options. Check your PM, I am sending you a message.

[Mae and Jack 0]

Ummm you are already married, so it would be just a reaffirmation ceremony. When Mhay and I got married we did have to do an interview with the priest and he wrote a letter of recommendation for the Arch Bishop of her province and we had to go to get him to sign off on the wedding. (this was for a mixed religion marriage...I'm not catholic...yet)

No it's not just a reaffirmation of ceremony. The catholic church do not recognize the civil wedding as a valid marriage that is why they have all these requirements which everyone has to comply with (regardless whether civilly married or not)...actually they have different sets of requirements for mixed-religion marriage (like what you and Mhay had) and for couples who are both catholics, they also have other (additional) requirements if one of the couple is a foreigner.

Congratulations by the way on Mhay's visa approval

I hope you are not having the same confusion my friend and his wife had. In fact the Philippine wedding will not be a "legal" wedding, it will be ceremonial only to comply with religious practices. But once you are legally married in the US, you cannot legally marry again. The following is a requirement for a foreigner to marry in the Philippines.

Any foreigner who wishes to marry in the Philippines is required by the Philippine Government to obtain from his/her Embassy an "Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry" before filing an application for a marriage license. As you are already married you cannot meet this requirement. To do so would mean you would have to lie under oath and say you are not married to an embassy CO.

[Mae and Jack 0]

Sorry, forgot to add, when my friend explained this to his wifes church, and of course made a "small" cash donation, the meeting part was no longer an issue. By the way, originally they wanted them to have 6 months of meetings.

[Markieboy 104]

Sorry, forgot to add, when my friend explained this to his wifes church, and of course made a "small" cash donation, the meeting part was no longer an issue. By the way, originally they wanted them to have 6 months of meetings.

Agreed. This is, by far, the best approach, IMHO. It cuts out the red tape/BS, and simplifies everything.

[MI.PI 7]

I hope you are not having the same confusion my friend and his wife had. In fact the Philippine wedding will not be a "legal" wedding, it will be ceremonial only to comply with religious practices. But once you are legally married in the US, you cannot legally marry again. The following is a requirement for a foreigner to marry in the Philippines.

Any foreigner who wishes to marry in the Philippines is required by the Philippine Government to obtain from his/her Embassy an "Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry" before filing an application for a marriage license. As you are already married you cannot meet this requirement. To do so would mean you would have to lie under oath and say you are not married to an embassy CO.

No, I completely understand the scenario when I said that church wedding in the Philippines is not just a reaffirmation of ceremony of the US civil wedding, but thanks for your comment as it gives me an opportunity to explain things further. The US civil wedding is binding and legal and is recognized as valid by the Philippine government, but it is not sacramental (i.e. not blessed by the church), hence ,not recognized as valid by the Catholic church. Civil wedding is a ceremony for legal purposes but to have the marriage blessed by the church involves a completely different ceremony. This is where I am coming from when I said that it is not just a reaffirmation of ceremony.

As for the requirements, if the couple is already civilly married, neither affidavit nor the certificate of legal capacity to marry from the US embassy is needed. A certified copy of the US marriage certificate suffices the requirement.

The pre-cana (or pre-marriage) seminar is another requirement which is actually different from the interview with the priest (i.e. canonical interview). Pre-cana is a series of seminars which typically lasts for 6 months but some churches allow attendance in other pre-wedding seminars like Catholic Engaged Encounter or Discovery Weekend as a suitable substitute for the Pre-Cana. These other seminars involves 1 weekend only. While it is true that you can make donations to make things simpler, attending the seminar for a weekend is actually worth doing.