Marrying in the Roman Catholic Church

Legal requirements

The legal requirements for a Roman Catholic wedding are the same as those applying to civil marriages. Notice of their intention to be married must be given in person, by both the bride and groom, to the superintendent registrar of the district in which each of them lives.

If both the bride and the groom are practising Roman Catholics, the banns will be published within their church, although they form no part of the legal process for the wedding. If either party is not Catholic, the banns will not normally be read.

In order to satisfy the residential requirements, each of the couple must have lived in their district for at least seven days before giving notice. After giving notice, the couple have to wait a further sixteen days before the superintendent registrar's certificate is issued. This needs to be presented to the priest who is marrying the couple before the marriage can take place.

A couple planning a wedding in a Catholic church should check with the priest that the building is registered for marriages and whether or not an `authorised person' will be in attendance. Many Roman Catholic priests are registered or authorised persons.

Marriage Preparation

Generally speaking, a Catholic priest will require up to six months' notice of an intended wedding, and longer if possible. This will enable him to provide for adequate preparation of the couple. It is increasingly common for all couples who are marrying in the Catholic Church to be asked to attend some form of 'preparation', covering a number of points which are common to all marriages. This is to try to ensure that the couple are prepared adequately for marriage and have a reasonable understanding of what they are doing.

Marriage Care helps to provide Preparation for Marriage courses, arranged locally either by the parish churches or by the Marriage Care centre and information about them can be obtained either from the local church itself or the local centre. See our Useful Resources section for contact details.

Ceremony Planning

The bride and bridegroom will need to choose music, hymns and readings to be used in the service, after discussion with the priest (and the organist). They may read out passages from the scripture themselves during the ceremony or invite relatives or friends to do so. The priest will read the Gospel passage. The selected readings can be included on the Order of Service sheets.