Q. Do new Catholics (adult converts) need to have their non-Catholic marriages blessed by the Church?
A. Amongst the sacraments, marriage is unique for a number of reasons. It is the only sacrament that the ones receiving it effect themselves. Marriage, unlike the other sacraments, existed prior to the coming of Christ and therefore is said to have been “raised” by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament, rather than instituted by Christ. Because of these two essential aspects of the sacrament of marriage, it means that things can get a little complicated when talking about what is a valid marriage and what is not with regards to non-Catholic marriages.
There are three elements that make a marriage valid on a Divine Law level – fidelity, exclusivity, and openness to life – and one juridic (that is, legal) element, which is a marriage must be according to the proper form of the faith of the man and woman. For Catholics, this means observing canonical form. This is a merely ecclesiastical law, meaning the Church created it and therefore the Church can modify it and, importantly for the purposes of this question, it means only Catholics are bound to it.
For (presumably) obvious reasons, non-Catholics are not bound by canonical form, which includes, amongst other things, getting married in a Catholic Church building. Some non-Catholic faith communities do observe a standard form of marriage, the clearest example of which is Eastern Orthodox Christians, who are bound to observe the form of their respective autocephalous church. If a member of one of these faith communities is not married according to his or her form and is therefore invalidly married, the Catholic Church would also consider that marriage to be invalid.
For Christians who belong to a faith community that has no form, they are free to marry however their conscience dictates. But they are not free to define marriage however they want. God has already done that, and we are all bound by His definition (again, faithful, exclusive, open to life).
Therefore, if a non-Catholic couple get married in a religious or civil ceremony, and they enter into that marriage with the intention of it being faithful, exclusive, and open to life, then the Catholic Church would say that marriage is valid. If both the man and the woman are baptized, the Church also says that it is a sacramental marriage (CIC c. 1055 §2).
Being married in a Catholic ceremony is not essential to the validity of marriage or to the marriage being sacramental as, again, that is a juridic requirement the Church imposes on Catholics for the good order of the celebration of marriage. It is analogous to baptism, in that anyone can baptize someone validly so long as they observe the proper matter and form but, for the good order of the sacrament, the Church made the legal decision to, in ordinary circumstances, limit the minister of baptism to a deacon, priest, or bishop. This is a legal safeguard taken to prevent the abuse of the sacrament of baptism.
The requirement of form is a legal safeguard taken to prevent the abuse of the sacrament of marriage, rooted in the lived experience of the Church for the past few centuries. But it is only a legal reality and is not intrinsic to the validity of a marriage per se.
When a non-Catholic enters into full communion with the Catholic Church, the validity or invalidity of his or her marriage does not change by that act alone. If the marriage was valid before, it remains valid. If it was not valid, then it remains invalid. This is why irregular marriage situations need to be resolved before someone enters into full communion with the Catholic Church. So, a non-Catholic convert does not need to have his or her marriage “blessed” for it to be valid, presuming it was already valid.
As a quick aside for the many Catholics who use the phrase “have a marriage blessed,” the correct terminology is to say, “have a marriage convalidated,” but that is a topic for another Ask the Register.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
