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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

Is My Cousin’s Marriage in an “Independent Catholic Church” Valid If Both She and Her Fiancé Are Baptized Catholics?

Jim Blackburn

Question:

My cousin (who has been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church) and her fiancé (who has been baptized Catholic) plan to get married by a priest of an "independent Catholic Church." Will this be a valid, sacramental marriage? Will they excommunicate themselves?

Answer:

Since both are Catholics, your cousin and her fiancé are bound by Church law to marry in the Church. The Code of Canon Law establishes the form of the celebration of marriage which generally “must be observed if at least one of the parties contracting marriage was baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it and has not defected from it by a formal act” (CIC 1117). Marrying in an “independent catholic church” will not satisfy this obligation and the resulting “marriage” will be invalid.

Although they will not incur excommunication for this, a conjugal relationship outside a valid marriage is grave matter and they should not receive the Eucharist until the matter is rectified and they have been to confession. You would do well to express your concerns and strongly encourage them to marry validly in the Church.

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