Expert: Tom Schott - 9/7/2009

Question
Hi Rev Deacon,

Thanks for all your Answers. I am Arun from India. I have married a Hindu girl at a registrar office. The "Thali" (equal to Wedding ring) was blessed in a  Catholic church before I tied it around my wife's neck in the Registrar Office, but the marriage was not officially blessed by the Catholic Church. Now I want to bless the marriage in a Catholic Church, but the parish priest is asking my wife to get converted into Christianity. She is not willing to become a Catholic. Is there any Church doctrine by which I can get my marriage blessed by the Catholic Church without converting my wife into Catholicism? Please provide me an answer. Thanks a lot.

Answer
Arun,

No. I'm sorry there is no way that this can be done in the Church. Why? Because the sacrament of matrimony (which is what a marriage blessed by the church is) has to be entered into by two baptized people, i.e., Christians. So this is why the parish priest is telling you she must convert. I understand how both of you feel, your wife and you, and I would not have been so insensitive as to suggest that she become a Catholic, but this is what the rules are.