What if my fiance was baptized Catholic but never raised Catholic?

Dear Fr. Rob Ruhnke,  [NOTE: I have not used the real names of other people on this page]

I am a Catholic and my fiance is "not Catholic"...but she was baptized a Catholic.  The story is that she was baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church, but her parents never raise her in the Catholic faith.  After her parents divorced she attended a Methodist church with her mother, so she calls herself a Methodist.

Now that we want to marry in the Catholic Church, we are trying to learn whether she will have to become a member of the Catholic Church to marry me in the Catholic Church....or not.  Can you help us know what needs to be done???

Thank you,

Sam Jones

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Dear Sam,

Assuming that neither of you has been married before...then your situation is easily dealt with.

Step one - You must make contact with the Catholic Church where your fiance was baptized and request a newly issued copy of her baptismal record.  This is a key document because it will provide documentation that she was baptized in the Catholic Church.  In addition, it will provide information that she was never married in the Catholic Church and never received her First Communion or Confirmation (because all of this information will be missing from the document).

Step two - With this document ~ which you would have to get anyway to be married in the Catholic Church ~ you can approach your pastor to begin the marriage preparation process, knowing that your fiance will be recognized as Catholic who is free to marry in the Catholic Church.  For more information on this see the document > "Omnius in Mentem" by Pope Benedict XVI.

IN ADDITION...If you fiance had been married before, she will be dealt with as a Catholic who married "outside the Catholic Church" and thus her first married was not "valid" by the standards of the Cathloic Church and she will not need to go through the Catholic Church annulment process.  See > If you are a Catholic who divorced.

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