My fiancé and I have been engaged for 6 months now and we plan to get married in a year... We have planned to get married in a catholic church and have a catholic wedding but since my fiancé is not catholic he doesn't believe in the serving of the bread and wine... (The body and blood of Christ) so my father told us we would only be able to have a catholic ceremony without the mass, all he would need to bring is his baptism Certificate... but than another issue can up where my fiancé has not been baptized... to make a long story short... I want to know if we can still get married in a catholic church with him being a Christian and me being a catholic.

-- unknown (pmeza@uh.edu), June 23, 2003

Answers

Dear "unknown,"
If a person is not baptized, he is not yet a Christian. One might say that your friend is like a "catechumen" -- preparing to be baptized and Christian.
You can get married in a Catholic Church to your fiance, but I believe that it would be a ceremony outside of the Mass. Please discuss this immediately with your pastor. You must meet with him to prepare for your marriage.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), June 24, 2003.

Just curious -- is a Catholic not a Christian?

-- Dee (dee@none.sorry), June 24, 2003.

Thank you for all your help. It was greatly appreciated. I already talk to my priest. He said he needed to look to see if he can marry us... but I would have to call him back in two weeks for his answer...but I was just wanting to know if that is possible.. Although that isn’t going to stop us from marring each other, it would really mean allot to me to get married in my church!!!

-- unknown (pmeza@uh.edu), June 24, 2003.

Dear Dee,

Yes, a Catholic is a complete Christian, if he fully accepts the teaching of the Church. Protestantism, in its innumerable variations, is partial Christianity. The question should have been worded in terms of Catholic vs. Protestant, not Catholic vs. Christian.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), June 24, 2003.

Catholics are not Christians as they do not accept only the teachings of Christ, they have to add on all their traditions. Protestants are Christians as they believe the Bible, and believe that Salvation is by Grace ALONE through Faith ALONE in Christ ALONE. I remember something I heard once "All Christians are Priests but not all Priests are Christians"!!!!

-- Paul (pt@aol.com), July 20, 2003.

History clearly shows that: Catholics were the first Christians; Catholics were the only Christians on earth for 1,000 years after Christ; Catholics were the only Christians Christ ever intended to exist.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), July 20, 2003.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

Ask a Catholic and a Christian what one must do to obtain salvation and you will get very different answers.

-- Jojo (jojo@cox2.net), July 25, 2003.

Yes, if you ask a Catholic Christian and a Protestant, you certainly will get two different answers. However, if you ask two Protestants, you will also get two different answers. And if you ask ten Protestants, you may get ten different answers. In Protestantism there are as many different answers as there are denominations. In Catholicism there is only one answer - the fullness of Christian truth, guaranteed by Jesus Christ and provided by the Holy Spirit.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), July 25, 2003.

Catholics are not Christians as they do not accept only the teachings of Christ,

so youre saying that if we want to be christians we have to reject the entire old testament? i mean, wow... throw out the ten commandments? throw out the old covenant entirely? wow, i never knew that when Christ came it completely negated EVERYTHING God the Father ever said.

see how dumb that sounds? grow up, spirituality is given to us in three parts, the father (through the old testament), the Son (in the gospels) and the Holy Spirit (influencing writers of the new testament and writings of the saints since then. or perhaps you think that God is powerless to inspire peoples writing today?

they have to add on all their traditions.

er... have to maintain the traditions started in the time of Christ by his own disciples.

Protestants are Christians as they believe the Bible,

catholics believe in the Bible as well. what we dont believe is that the Bible is the only form of inspired writing. that believe is called sola scriptera, or by the scripture alone. that, however, is not ever seen once in the Bible, so by definition the idea of sola scriptera violates itself and is therefore invalid.

and believe that Salvation is by Grace ALONE through Faith ALONE in Christ ALONE.

uh, we believe that too, we are saved by faith in Christ alone. the issue is the maintenance of faith, and the manifestation of that faith, which is done by doing the works of faith... read james if you dont believe me.

I remember something I heard once "All Christians are Priests but not all Priests are Christians"!!!!

you probably heard that from baptist... ive heard that same line of BS from them as well. no, not all priests are christians, some of them are wolves in sheeps clothing, but not all christians are priests... imagine a flock made entirely of shepards and no sheep, how would that work?

anyways, best wishes as you continue to flounder about in your search for 'truth'

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), July 26, 2003.