What blame, if any, is to be assigned to the people in the Church who allow "deficient" marriages to take place? Are the Pre-Cana people supposed to recognize warning signs? Is the priest supposed to say to the couple, "No, I will not marry you in this parish, and further, I will put out the word to every other parish in all 50 states and the District of Columbia?"

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), February 09, 2005

Answers

What blame, if any, is to be assigned to the people in the Church who allow "deficient" marriages to take place?

GT,

LOL - now maybe you see the light?

The people in the Church don't allow "deficient" marriages to take place -that is why it takes so long to conduct a formal 'investigation' into a Catholic marriage that observed all requirements... That is also why Can. 1095 is used almost exclusively as it can be supported with derived evidence constructed by subjective 'experts'...

-- Daniel Hawkenberry (dlm@catholic.org), February 09, 2005.

The purpose of Pre-Cana classes is to convey information, not to analyse the participants. If an obvious problem came to light, the Pre-Cana instructors might well bring it to the attention of the pastor, but that is not the principle function of the classes. The pastor would not have to pass such information to other parishes since Canon Law requires a couple to marry in their own parish except in very unusual circumstances. If a couple who are not members of a parish approached the pastor about marrying there, he would probably refuse outright, but at the very least would want to know why, and would likely contact their pastor(s) to see if there were any problems he should know about.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 09, 2005.

It was my understanding that marriage prep classes are supposed to examine things in depth--otherwise, why the tests?

If there is no analysis, the classes are probably not as useful as they could be.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), February 09, 2005.

GT,

Allow me to correct your statment to what it Should read.

"It was my understanding that marriage prep classes are supposed to **Help ME to** examine things in depth--otherwise, why the tests?"

And the rest of your statement IS correct

"**If there is no analysis**, the classes are probably not as useful as they could be."

Now if you are the victim of Failed analysis your best bet at this point is to stop looking for someone to blame, and to Really look deeply at the Person in the mirror as to where the problems may be stemming from. And work it out from there.

-- Michael G. (NoEmail@Nowhere.no), February 09, 2005.

I was looking the question from a hypothetical standpoint. And if what you, Michael, are saying is true, then it should only be an issue between the two parties involved as to whether their marriage is valid, certainly not any outsiders beyond your parish priest, if it comes to an annullment proceeding later.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), February 10, 2005.

What is the "principle function" of the pre-marriage classes?

-- Lesley (martchas@hotmail.com), February 10, 2005.