I'm marry a Jehovah Witness and I am a Catholic. What will the marriage ceremony be? Can rituals be shared?

Question

Neither of us attend Church/Hall regularly..both he is pretty strong in his beliefs...I believe in God but I am not strong in my Catholic faith; however, I doubt I'll ever convert to becoming a Witness. I wnat to attend church together but he doesn't want to go to a Catholic Church and I dont want to go to a hall. but we are both want to make this work...help!

Answer 1

If you are not very strong in your beliefs, then maybe you could try going with him to a few meetings to see if you feel comfortable there. My mom is a Witness, and I'm not, but I still enjoy going with her on occasion, and they really do bring up some interesting points. Although I doubt that I will ever truly follow the religion like my mother does, I have to say that everything they teach, they can show you where it says it in the bible - and no, they don't have their own crazy made up bible, they use the King James version. I don't agree with them not celebrating birthdays, but I do understand why they don't celebrate Christmas. You can look in just about any encyclopedia, and it will tell you that it isn't Christ's birth date. Before you make up your mind that you don't want to go, at least give it a try. Maybe you can compromise with your husband and say that you'll try going to his Hall, if he'll try going with you to your church. Good luck, whatever you decide!

Answer 2

I strongly doubt the rituals can be shared. The JW explicitly reject Catholicism and Protestantism. They are descendents of what used to be called the sectarian movement. They alone believe they are Christian. No one else is.

Further, they began as a group predicting the date Jesus would return. He didn't show, so they moved the date. When he didn't show again, they decided he must of came, but invisibly and just no one but the JW noticed. They get their inspiration out of the New World Translation of the bible, which scripture scholars outside the JW are heavily critical of. The translations they use cannot be reached from the original texts without purposefully mistranslating. Of course, the JW believe it is the rest of the world, throughout history that has got it wrong.

As a closed group and one that goes against the grain of pretty much every other group in society, they feel closed in by the outside world and are insular. As such, they do try extra hard to convert everyone. In fact, the JW were the only religious group Hitler purposely put out for extermination. He killed the Jews for genetic reasons, but the Witnessess were considered too anti-social and he tolerated no potential opposition. The Witnessess will recognize no government and as such, wouldn't recognize Hitler as chancellor of the Reich. Of course they don't say the pledge of allegiance either.

Further, they believe God's kingdom is limited to only 144,000 people throughout all time. All of them are JW and since there are more than 144,000 JW, many of them are damned as well. God only has so much space and then heaven is full.

As a person who married someone from a different religious tradition, I strongly suggest you visit your priest. It isn't that it cannot work, but it will take a lot of prayer and when children come, you are going to have deep problems unless you solve them before you are married.

Also, I would point out that it matters more that God loves you and you accept his gifts to you than you have strong faith. God can make up for what you lack, but you should go and look at what he offers. Many people wander the world with weak faith until suddenly they need it. People with strong faith seem to be able to weather the worst better than those with weak faith and you sound like you will need very strong faith to weather this relationship successfully.

There is an excellent book called "Rome Sweet Home," by Scott and Kimberly Hahn. They were evangelical theologians, he converted to Catholicism and she did later. Each of them write half a chapter about their lives. You will likely live that division they experienced. I suggest strongly you read it. She felt deeply betrayed when he became Catholic and considered divorce. You will have a deep division between you. You can bridge it, but only if he lets you.

Finally, you both sound like you want to make this work and not change. That cannot happen. At least part of what you are doing is establishing your identity as a separate person. That is important, but it means that the marriage will have a harder time if you are so separate you never become "one body."

Start with your priest. If you think you can remain objective, I suggest jointly attending both services for awhile and both investigate things. You might also pick up the book "Why do Catholics do that?" by Kevin Orlin Johnson. It gives a decent explanation of Catholic beliefs and how they came about for non-Catholics.

Answer 3

If your JW ceremony was legal (marriage certificate from the state), then you need to have it legally dissolved through a legal divorce. Meanwhile, you also need to file for a decree of nullity from the Catholic Church. This will either be easy or difficult to get. If you married in the JW church without getting dispensation from your bishop to do so and without proper premarital prep, you should be able to get a decree of nullity. If, however, you had dispensation to marry in the JW service and if you did do the accepted premarital preparations, you will have to prove that something else was amiss at the time of your vows. Disparity of cult (i.e. different religions) isn't enough, because presumably you both knew you were of different religions and had agreed to marry and work that out. Once you have the divorce and the decree of nullity, you will be free to remarry. And no, you do NOT want a civil marriage this time around -- that would invalidate your second marriage immediately. You want your second marriage to be valid, which means you'll need to marry in the Catholic Church or get dispensation to marry a non-Catholic in that person's non-Catholic Church.

Answer 4

For the answers stating that Jehovah's Witness are only a cult? I'm sorry, but I think you have a few facts mixed up. My mom and step dad both go there, so I know for a fact that most of what you are saying isn't true. At least 5 people there have spouses who follow a different religion, and this has never been a problem for them. Then don't use a different, exclusive bible, unless you consider the King James version as such, which is what they use. As for having disassociating themselves from those who won't convert? That's just a foolish myth. I never converted, and I never plan to, yet I'm as close to my mom as ever, and many of her friends from there think the world of me and my son. Those who choose not to have a relationship with anyone not converted, do so by their choice alone. The only kind of people they encourage you to avoid, are people who you feel will be a bad influence on you and your life, like a drug addict, or a criminal or something. I don't see anything wrong with that, because who wants to have people like that in their lives anyway? They do say that they believe that the end of the world is coming, but aren't most of the other religions saying the same thing right now? I'm not saying that there aren't any bad people at all in their religon, because it's impossible to find a religion where all of the people are true followers - there are good and bad people in each religion, in my opinion. If nothing else, listen to what they have to say, then look in your bible to see whether or not it's the truth before you make up your mind about them. So far, everything that I've heard them say, they've been able to back up from passages in the Bible, so I don't see where they're making things up. I'm by no means saying that you should convert, but at least be fair, and check into it a little bit before making up your mind that they're all fanatics. My mother has studied with them since she was 19, and NEVER tried to force it upon me when I said that I didn't want to follow them.

Answer 5

I don't know much about the Jehovah's Witnesses, but I can speak to Catholicism. I don't know what is held in common beyond faith in Christ, but I've heard some fairly denigrating things from members of JW against Catholics, so there may be an issue with his community against your beliefs.

It is perhaps better for you to put this marriage on hold for now, discern your beliefs, read Scripture as well as commentaries that speak to you, and then come back to the table with him. Otherwise, if you aren't strong in your beliefs, but he is strong in his, his beliefs will dominate yours, and you'll either convert, or there will be tremendous discord in your marriage.

Getting married takes three things:
1) Finding the right person.
2) Being the right person.
3) Having the right time.

If you aren't sure of your beliefs, are you sure you're ready for marriage?

Answer 6

You won't be able to marry in the kingdom hall, that's for sure as they only let baptised persons of good standing in the congregation marry in their hall. I was brought up as a JW and practised for 22 years, and that was the way they did it in my congregation. I no longer practise, but I know that he cannot be that much into his faith or he would not have started dating you in the first place, anyone that is totally dedicated to that faith would marry only someone in the faith as well, it is very "frowned upon" for people to date outside of the faith, but not banned. Also a true JW will not try to convert you as so many people wrongly think, they simply offer you the opportunity to look at what their faith believes, and if you don't want to know then just tell them you don't want to know, they should not harass you or keep calling on your if you have the courage to firmly tell them you are not interested in their religion. I would say your only option is to marry in a registry office or registered building/court etc in a civil ceremony and then both get on with practising your own beliefs as you choose.

Answer 7

While Catholics can marry a non catholic in a catholic ceremony... it cannot be a full mass. You have to have permission from the Church to marry a non-catholic and the Church requires that the person be christian and have received baptism in their faith. I dont think that JW fall into that.

If you marry outside of the Catholic Church you are forfitting your right to sacraments... confession, communion and last rights.

You may want to consider some sort of pre-maritial counseling to talk through all of the options so that you can be sure that you've looked at all of the possible issues and consequences.

Answer 8

It really depends on the priest. By the Catholic Doctorine to get married in the Church both parties must be Catholic and have received all their sacraments up to marriage (babtism, First reconciliation, First Communion, and Confirmation) I have never seen a priest bypass these rules but I have seen priest give all the sacraments at a wedding to the party who hadn't received them yet but they were required to go to all the classes before hand. I can't help you with the rules in the kingdom Hall but I hope that helps. If you want to get married in the Catholic Church that is what has to happen.

Answer 9

you wont be allowed to get married in the hall anyhow so why not go get married in a beautiful park where gods sun will shine down on you both god bless you both with god all things are possible. I Corinthians 13
Love is patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud.
Love is never haughty or selfish or rude.
Love does not demand it's own way. Love is not irritable or touchy.
Love does not hold grudges and will hardly notice when others do it wrong.
Love is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.

Answer 10

Obviously he's not that strong of a Jehovah's witness either since he is willing to marry a Catholic. So why don't you just save time and money and go to Vegas for your Wedding/Honey Moon. Good luck