The Problem With Catholics And Weddings
So, PW is Catholic. Her first husband wasn’t. They were married by a Justice of the Peace is a Community Center and the Catholic Church was never involved or cared.
She’s divorced now of course.
The new fiance is also Catholic and they’ve kind of decided they might want to get married in a Catholic Church though she’s really not all that religious.
Here’s the catch, as I understand it.
If you are Catholic and you’ve been married before and the marriage wasn’t acknowledged by the Catholic Church, welll, then everything’s fine and dandy, and there’s no worries. Happily ever after.
However, if you aren’t Catholic and you’ve been married before and now you want to get married to a Catholic in the Catholic Church, well, they are going to cause a big stink about that. No church wedding for you.
So, what’s the problem, you ask? PW and English are both Catholic. Manchild wasn’t and the first wedding wasn’t in a Catholic Church.
Well…see, there’s this tiny piece of paper that’s missing. It’s the confirmation that PW was baptized in the Catholic Church. See, it kind of got misplaced in that big mess they called Hurricane Katrina last August; you know, when PW’s apartment was completely under water and she lost pretty much everything?
O.K. So, what about the Church where she was baptized? Surely they have a record? Well, see, they were under 10 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina too.
Well, what about her parents? Might they have an extra copy. Well, her allusive mother who abandoned her at nine is unlikely to have a copy should we be able to find her and PW hasn’t actually heard from her in years and her psychotic, abusive father has been seen since Katrina but his house was also under ten feet of water and even if someone were able to contact him, he’d likely not sign anything or give a copy of anying out of spite.
So, the Catholic Church may not recognize that she is Catholic and may hold her to her first marriage to a man who abandoned her and may refuse her a church wedding. How twisted is that?
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on April 5, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Tamara said:
We didn’t get married in a Catholic church but I had no idea you needed proof of baptism. In fact, are you sure that’s not an England thing? I didn’t even know that a “proof of baptism” form existed, and I surely have no idea where mine might be, if indeed there ever was one!
Hope they can work it out.