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Dear Jill,
I'm happy you want to be married in the Church.
My question to you is:
- Why do you want to marry in the Catholic Church?
- Are you planning on living the rest of your life as a practicing Catholic,
obeying all Church disciplines and believing all that the Church teaches?
It is probably through no fault of your own that you didn't receive the
sacraments. It was your parents responsibility to bring you up in the faith
as they promised:
- you
- the Church, and
- God on the day you were baptized.
- Technically, Yes, you may get married in the Church.
Catholics believe that Matrimony is a sacrament. In asking Holy Mother
Church to witness your marriage, you must agree to:
- be open to children
- using
no artificial means of birth control, and
- bringing them
up to be Catholics.
When you swear an oath of the covenant with your husband in
a Church wedding, the Church is bearing witness to the
covenant. This
oath is not just to one another, it is to Almighty God
and therefore to His Church and, that means, to the rest
of us in the Church.
I would invite you
find a good local priest and ask him about entering an RCIA program. This
is a faith formation program for non-Catholics seeking to enter the Church
as well as Catholics who haven't been confirmed. Study the faith that, by no apparent fault of your own, you don't know.
I would start there.
God Bless,
John
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