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Karthika,
- Is your Catholic fiancé and his parents equally adamant that he will be married in a Catholic ceremony?
If not, another route would be to have you and your fiancé married in a Hindu ceremony. You and your fiancé would ask the Catholic Church to recognize that Hindu wedding by granting two dispensations, one:
- for Disparity of Cult (i.e. a Catholic marrying an unbaptized person), and the other
- for Form (i.e. a Catholic married by a non priest or Deacon).
With these two dispensations granted, the marriage would be valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church but it would not be a sacramental Marriage. Sacramental marriages are only between two baptized persons. The very day and moment you are baptized your Marriage would become sacramental.
Obviously, if you convert prior to the Marriage then it would be impossible for the Church to recognize a Hindu marriage of two Catholics.
In my experience, most Hindu/Catholic couples eventually attempt to have two ceremonies.
If you end up doing that, the Catholic ceremony should be second. The reason for this is we believe a Marriage has to be a complete act of the will of both parties.
If the Hindu Marriage were second then it is possible that the Hindu party at the Catholic ceremony would not be making a complete act of the will but would be thinking:
My consent to this marriage will be complete after the Hindu ceremony still to come.
I hope this is helpful.
Fr. Jonathan
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