Marriage and the Catholic Church, Part 2

Last week, we established that in order to be married in the Catholic Church, at least one of the couple should actually be a baptized Catholic. While the Catholic party should also be fully initiated, having celebrated 1st Communion and Confirmation, this is not absolutely required. And yet, you may know of a couple that has been denied marriage in the Catholic Church because the Catholic party had not been confirmed. How can that be?

This is what Canon Law has to say about marriage and Confirmation: “If they can do so without serious inconvenience, Catholics who have not yet received the sacrament of confirmation are to receive it before being admitted to marriage.” The law contains that all-important clause, “If they can do so without serious inconvenience.” In other words, Canon Law makes allowances for, as an example, those who live in areas where Confirmations are celebrated infrequently. In areas like ours, however, where Confirmations are celebrated annually, the pastor may insist that you be confirmed before marrying, and that is his prerogative.

What about the other half of the couple? Are there any requirements for the non-Catholic party? If the other party is a baptized Christian but not Catholic, you may marry in the Catholic Church. If the other party has never been baptized in any Christian church, you may marry in the Catholic Church. This means that a Catholic may marry, in the Church, someone who is Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or even someone who doesn’t believe in God. It is important to know that the Catholic Church does not require the non-Catholic to convert to Catholicism.

However, before the mixed couple can marry, the Church must grant a “dispensation” – permission for the marriage – based on canonical reasons. The most common reason is “for the spiritual well being of the Catholic party.” Additionally, the non-Catholic party needs to accept the Catholic understanding of marriage: intending to enter a permanent union and to be faithful. The Catholic Catechism for Adults says that “Married love is ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children.” So the non-Catholic also needs to be open to having children, and understand that the Catholic must promise to intend to continue living the Catholic faith and do “all in (his or her) power” to share the faith with their children by having them baptized and raised as Catholics.

Obviously, this question is not a new one, since St. Paul addresses “mixed marriages” in his first letter to the Corinthians. His view is that “…the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother.”