Manila Cathedral/Catholic Church Wedding Requirements: Need help, please.

[MsRixx22]

Good day, everyone!

I am an October 2018 bride. We have our wedding date set and our church and venue all set (Manila Cathedral and Manila Hotel reception) and all our family are already set to come home for our wedding.

Right now, both I and the husband (we are civilly married here in NY) are in NY and will be coming home to the Philippines 6 weeks or a month prior to the wedding. We all know that the necessary paperworks like the baptismal and confirmation certificates are all to be submitted at earliest 6 months prior to the wedding and that's what we were gonna do, but then we got into a 'dead end'.

Here's the actual situation. My husband is a baptized Catholic, but born and raised here in the US. He did not get any of his other Sacraments (First Communion and Confirmation). I, on the other hand, was born and raised in the Philippines, attended a Catholic school all my life and got all of my Sacraments. Prior to leaving the Philippines, we were told that we can just go home earlier prior to the wedding to get al of my husband's Sacraments so we kind of didn't really worry about it, but now that we are requesting for my husband's documents here from the US, the parishes don't want to release his Baptismal certificate annotated for marriage purposes because he doesn't have his Sacraments.

Any of you guys get into the same situation before? Any of your grooms didn't have their sacraments for a Catholic wedding? What did you guys do? I'm literally freaking out now because we have everything ready except these paperworks T__T Is there a way for my husband to get both First Communion and Confirmation in the Philippines? (We tried getting his Sacraments here in the US but the preparation for adult confirmation here takes months and we won't make it for our wedding)... And no, moving the wedding date is not an option. It's either we completely cancel this wedding or it goes through >__<

Thoughts, anyone? Thanks in advance.

[lalee888]

Hey I'm from New York too! Anyway there is no way out of Catholic rules, your only way is to declare that he is not Catholic. You will still be married under Catholic rites and you will just be declaring that you will bear the burden of raising your future children as Catholics.

I did my pre Cana last year in NY and my husband is not Catholic but he will be converting next year after our philippine church wedding.

I don't have any more information to share with you, particularly regarding the possibility of him receiving sacraments in the Philippines but in general the church rules are standard all over the world. You should just do you pre-Cana and state that he is not Catholic.

[i_miss_sleep]

^^Wedding preparations especially if you're away is really stressful. I'm sorry you're going through all these. Have you had a chance to contact Manila Cathedral? I'm sure they have dealt a lot of odd cases and they may give you some considerations. Let them know that your husband is a non-practicing Catholic and is yet to take the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. See if they can accept paperworks after the wedding. Good Luck!

Btw, I was also married at Manila Cathedral and wedding reception was also at Manila Hotel. We only provided photocopies of our baptismal certificate.