Q: I am Catholic and my fiancée is unbaptized. I want to have the wedding ceremony in the Catholic Church, but [there are problems]… I know that as a Catholic I should not marry in a ceremony in my fiancée’s religion. … Continue reading →
The post How Does the Presence of a Priest at My Non-Catholic Wedding Make it Okay? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q1: My fiancé and I wish to be married in a chapel [instead of the parish church]. This chapel… has been the most pivotal part of our faith life and relationship with one another. However, we were informed that we … Continue reading →
The post Canon Law and Getting What You Want appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: In our parish RCIA program, I have a couple that were married civilly, but plan to marry next year in the Catholic Church back in her hometown. Both are baptized Catholic and have received Holy Communion, but neither has … Continue reading →
The post Do Catholics Have to be Confirmed Before Getting Married? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: For four years our son was away at college, over 500 miles from home. He just graduated and is now engaged to a girl he met at school, and they want to get married in our parish here. Our … Continue reading →
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Q: I understand that the Catholic Church does not approve of divorce. But I do not understand why Henry VIII asked the Pope to grant him a divorce from his wife, and expected the Pope to grant it. Was there … Continue reading →
The post If the Church Has Never Permitted Divorce, Why Did Henry VIII Expect the Pope to Give Him One? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: My son was married to a non-Catholic girl for 7 years, and they have three boys. Just after she gave birth to the third, my daughter-in-law snapped and ran out on my son, taking the children with her and … Continue reading →
The post Laypeople Can Always Baptize–But When Should They? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: I heard about a boy who wept when he found out that he could not be admitted to our local seminary. The reason I heard was because he was an illegitimate child. I also read in the Catholic Encyclopedia … Continue reading →
The post Why Would an Illegitimate Man be Barred from the Priesthood? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q1: We have a seminarian in our diocese, who spent a summer in my parish. He was expecting to become a priest several years ago, but the bishop declined to ordain him. Nobody knows why. Today he’s just a deacon … Continue reading →
The post What Do You Do With the Deacon Who Refuses to be Ordained a Priest? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: Can openly married homosexuals become extraordinary ministers of communion? This happened in our parish. I sent an email to the bishop regarding church policy on this and I was directed to meet with the priest who allowed this. I … Continue reading →
The post Who is Qualified to Become an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: My girlfriend’s grandfather stopped going to church after Vatican II, because he didn’t like all the changes in the Mass. Now he’s getting old and the family is thinking about the possibility of an upcoming funeral, since he hasn’t … Continue reading →
The post Can a Lapsed Catholic Have a Catholic Funeral? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: My sister-in-law recently baptized her youngest daughter in a Presbyterian church. She is Catholic, her husband is non-denominational, and he is uneasy with the Catholic Church although they were married in a Catholic ceremony. My father-in-law insists “a baptism … Continue reading →
The post What Happens if Catholic Parents Have Their Child Baptized in a Non-Catholic Church? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: At Sunday Mass, Father announced that the church pipe organ was going to be replaced by a digital organ, because the pipe organ was in very bad shape. He said that he was given an anonymous gift of $100,000 … Continue reading →
The post Can the Pastor Buy and Sell Parish Property Without Our Consent? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q1: Could you tell me more about other Catholic ecclesial communities that are not Roman Catholic, such as the American National Catholic Church, and how they fit into the big picture of Catholicism? –John Q2: What is the “Old Catholic … Continue reading →
The post What is the “Old Catholic Church”? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: I am divorced. The marriage had some serious issues…we spent more time living separately than living together. It has been suggested that I just fill out the traditional annulment application and follow through on that. After discussing this with a … Continue reading →
The post Can I Get an Annulment Without My Spouse Knowing About It? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: Some years ago my diocese had to settle a number of sex-abuse lawsuits, all involving the same priest. More recently I learned that in the chancery, the diocesan staff had considered making the claim that the priest’s ordination was … Continue reading →
The post Can a Priest Have His Ordination Annulled? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: I was raised attending the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Divine Liturgies because my parents preferred that Liturgy to the Novus Ordo Mass in the Roman Rite. Although my father is from the Roman Rite (and so I’ve been told … Continue reading →
The post Why Don’t We Marry Validly Before a Ukrainian Catholic Priest? (Eastern Churches, Part I) appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: Although my husband and I are Roman Catholics, we have attended a Byzantine parish for many years. We adopted four children as infants from Eastern Europe. The orphanage director gave us their baptismal certificates written in Russian, and told … Continue reading →
The post Adopting Children of Another Faith (Eastern Churches, Part II) appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
(The post below was written many years ago, but it addresses an issue which unfortunately is still with us, particularly before Christmas. That’s why it seems feasible to post it again. Have a happy and holy Christmas!) Q: Last year, … Continue reading →
The post (Repost) Confession and General Absolution appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q1: Is it written anywhere, or in any authoritative text from the Holy See (or Bishops Conference), that being in an irregular marriage bars one from being a godparent? The canon seems vague. One could argue that living in a … Continue reading →
The post Can a Lapsed Catholic Be a Godparent? appeared first on Canon Law Made Easy.
Q: My wife and some of her Catholic girlfriends have befriended a travelling priest who stopped in our diocese for a while. He’s from [another diocese hundreds of miles away]. This priest promotes life-issues and traditional family values, etc. and … Continue reading →
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