Floralocale

You have decided to get married in the Church, congratulations! To prepare for this, a day is offered to the presbytery of the church for all couples who are going to get married. The goal is to help you reflect on the meaning of Christian marriage: commitment, couple, and family. A team of volunteers accompanies you who are part of the association of marriage preparation centers.

Prepare For Religious Marriage

The engaged are invited to contact the parish community as soon as possible, preferably one year before the desired date for their wedding. They will meet regularly with a priest in order to prepare the celebration and share the meaning they want to give to their commitment.

In addition to the personalized preparation with your priest, you are invited to spend a day with other couples who have made the same choice as you. Whether you are close or less close to the Church, we welcome you as you are. You will have the opportunity to express yourself and share with other couples, to express your point of view on different subjects. The animators are married couples. They will accompany you in your reflection. A priest will also be present on this day.

A Typical Day of Preparation For Marriage

• Reception of the bride and groom
• Constitution of groups and 1st sharing: life project
• Mass at the Sacré-Coeur church
• Return to the presbytery
• 2nd sharing: religious marriage
• Friendly time around a meal
• Presentation of the meaning of marriage by the priest
• 3rd sharing: communication
• Sharing of moments experienced during the day

The wedding at the Church does not mean the same thing as the church wedding. Indeed if I have a capital E it is because we differentiate the Church which means the community and the church which means the building. So getting married in the church requires a commitment not only to one’s husband but also to the Church.

One of The Two Future Spouses Must Be of The Catholic Religion

So at least one of the two people must be baptized in the Catholic Church. If you are both baptized, don’t worry. If the other person is not baptized, then it is quite possible to marry the Catholic Church. However, the unbaptized spouse must accept and respect the essential elements of Christian marriage: freedom, fidelity, indissolubility, and fertility. During your preparation for marriage, the priest after having consulted you will make a written request for an exemption for “disparity of worship”.

If neither is Christian, it will not be possible to marry in the Church. However, the Church will open its doors to undertake a catechumenate process towards an adult baptism which will allow you to have the first sacrament of the Church.

Not To Have Been Married Before

You have never been married to the Church, so no worries but be careful by reading so below you will see that your future commitment to the Church must be reflected.

If you have already married in the Church and you have divorced, it will be impossible to remarry in the Church. This point is linked to that of commitment but also of consent. If marriage in the Church indicates that the future spouses must be consenting and that they should be united for life, The Church cannot, therefore, recognize divorce and remarry people with different people. Some people wishing to marry a divorced do not understand why the Church does not want to marry them: it is because the divorced one is already married before God with another by accepting all the conditions.

The wedding sessions in the church can be organized by an experienced priest or couple chosen by the parish. They will invite you to dialogue and reflection and will focus on subjects such as prayer, the meaning of marriage, and special programs that will be devoted to situations of a second marriage, incorporation of children into the marriage, and interfaith marriages. This preparation generally takes place in the parish of residence which can, therefore, be different from the church where the ceremony will take place.

You will have to complete and return the marriage file between three and six months before D-Day. This is an essential step for the marriage to be recognized before the Civil Registry and before the Church. The file includes several documents and it is important to know how to obtain them, because be careful, if you and your future husband are from different dioceses, you will have to fill out the marriage file separately from your respective parishes.

Prepare The Necessary Documents

When preparing the marriage dossier, the priest in charge of processing your files will ask you for a series of documents essential for the validation of your marriage. For common documents relating to civil marriage, you need your identity card and a full copy of your birth certificate. In addition, to attest to the possibility of marrying according to canon law, documents following the death of the spouse, only civil first marriage, etc. will be communicated.

Regarding Documents Requested By The Church:

You will need the baptism certificate of both spouses. It is important to emphasize that it is not necessary to have made your first communion. It only prevents the fact of communing during the wedding mass. The civil marriage certificates and residency are also required.

As for “exceptional cases”, they must be notified in time to carry out the appropriate procedures if necessary, such as if one of the spouses comes from a country outside the European Union (the documents written in another language must be accompanied by a certified translation) or if one of the parties is not Catholic.

Choose A Parish or An Alternative

The majority of religious marriages take place in the local parishes of the spouses, although it is also customary that, if they both belong to different places, the bride and groom marry in the church of the city or of the village of the bride.

But can a couple marry outdoors? Organize your wedding at the beach, in a field, in the heart of a garden: it depends on the diocese and on the authorization of the bishop of the diocese, who will judge the convenience of the celebration depending on the circumstances.

In principle, there would be no problem, but the restrictions imposed in the past and the tradition, very dear to some priests, lead some of them to reject this possibility. Young priests are more in favor, especially abroad. If the parish priest refuses to marry you in this way, you can always celebrate it in a religious place and combine it with a symbolic outdoor ceremony. It is not the best solution, but it is a nice alternative.

Choose The Right Wedding Dress

It is not that there are restrictions on the choice of dress at a Catholic wedding, but it is true that a little more discretion is recommended than at a civil wedding. However, it is not necessary to give up the sensuality and the expression of its feminine forms.

Many couples, practicing Christians or not, wish to marry in church. They want to give a sacred value to their mutual love and to receive from God a force to love each other in happiness and in the trial. They ask for the sacrament of marriage. Christian marriage expresses that love is not only the commitment of the couple but that it is a gift that we receive.

The Church welcomes the project of those who want to love each other for life. She is there to help them. Starting a family is a noble task. Difficult but far from impossible if the foundations of the house rest on the following pillars:

• Freedom of consent
• Loyalty of commitment
• The indissolubility of the bond
• The fruitfulness of love

This love is only possible while respecting each person’s freedom, welcoming, and listening to the other. It is the communion of a man and a woman: the project is indeed to form a community of life and not a passionate fusion. To prepare for marriage is to take the time to discover the other, with his own desires, his mode of functioning, his psychology. It is welcoming their history, their family, and their education. It is learning to listen to him, to communicate with him, to respect him.

This love is combined with the fidelity of commitment. Promise that the bride and groom make on their wedding day! To be faithful is to cultivate an exclusive but open love, which takes priority over all the other realities of our life: friends, work, passions, etc.

This Love Is Realized By The Gift of His Life

The link is indissoluble. The sexual relation translates in the union of the bodies what is said in the promise which unites the hearts: “I receive you and I give myself to you, to love you faithfully”. The Church considers it a sacred act because it consecrates human love.

This love invites spouses to love each other and to open up to welcoming life in a responsible manner, with generosity. Love unfolds by giving life and life finds fulfillment in love. Love and give life, one and the same vocation! It is also a test to check if we are ready to marry: do we want to have children together and educate them?

Nowadays, religious and civil marriages only vary in the ceremony, since the continuation of the festivities usually follows the same patterns. However, the ceremony, and sometimes the celebration, is determined by certain elements that differ depending on the type of marriage. To make your life easier, here are the 5 key steps to organize your religious wedding in the church.

Start the procedures

If you have decided to marry in church, you will have to initiate several procedures that may vary according to the dioceses. First, you must make an appointment in your parish and learn more about marriage according to canon law, receive explanations on its nature and requirements to be able to carry it out. You will be asked questions to ensure the validity of the religious marriage: your respective confessions, baptism.

In the case of couples where only one member is Catholic, the other must be baptized and wait until the baptism certificate is six months old. The parish can also request an exemption from the bishop. During this process, you will have to attend various marriage preparation sessions, necessary to be considered ready, and to have a complete administrative file.