Do I need to be Confirmed in order to get married in the Catholic church in Poland?

Hi

I will be planing soon with my polish fiancee the wedding and this will take place in Poland. We both are catholic, thus the wedding will be in the catholic church.

I am baptized and also I had as a child my first communion. The thing is I have not gotten the ''confirmation'' . Do I really need this in order to get married ? If so, how can I do this fast? my girlfriend has told me that when they are in the high-school all their classmates do it together. She told me also that they have do to a test, attend some courses etc. , As an adult, I find it personally quite ridiculous if I would have to do all that.

Rather yes. But prist or bishop can give you dispention from this and many others barriers.
For your bride the link below:

factolex.pl/2012/09/23/malzenstwo-kanonicze-wymogi-formalne-przeszkody-i-ich-charakterystyka

According to kanon 1083 - § 1 canon law you are more than 16 and your bride more than 14 years old :)

I reckon a donation towards the church roof of say 400 zl should help. God moves in mysterious ways.

C.S.Lewis said: "unless Christ is your Lord you should not get married". Marriage, before it became a legal deed, was a sacrament. That is to say a pledge to God. Based on my observations I am impressed by Brits which I have known, for example, in how far their marriage to a Polish Catholic has brought them to Faith. If you are thinking of doing the same then very good, and no doubt, God will visibly reward you for that. However with questions like the one you have posted I would steer away from forums (like this one),policed by proponents of the kind of democracy which struggles to grant the domestic catholics 1 TV channel ( out of 50), in a country where 90% of population are baptised catholics.

No, all you need is to get in touch with the priest in qestion and ask him for details. Do it now to avoid problems.

Stay the heck out of the Church of Ancient Rome. Get married in the court, afterall marriage is a civil contract, that's why we have divorce COURTS!

This is true. Different dioceses interpret the rules (which are that you should be unless there's a reason to the contrary) differently - in Poland they favour it. However....


..... this is sadly very common.


This is sensible advice.


They have 1 TV channel. If they want it on the digital platform, all they have to do is file their accounts like all the other stations have managed to do, instead of insisting on being swathed in a very unchristian secrecy.


Most of whom neither attend church nor follow the rules.

Ironside has hit the nail on the head, it really does depend on how strict the priest is, but get in touch with him and he'll put you straight.

A civil marriage has no meaning for me. It can only be in the catholic church

yes it is quite ridiculous but then you said this


which is even more ridiculous so good luck wit the radicalness you putting yourself through

So people who got married in the Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican...church are not married at all?

In the eyes of the Polish state they are not.

I do not agree with you on that point. There is no state religion in Poland. If you marry your beloved one in your local pałac ślubny, you are married and that is it.

Without a confirmation you will not be able to marry your beloved in a church.
You will go to a registry office and they willl give you a piece of paper stating that from now you are married.
However for a Catholic, civil marriage is not really a marriage, it can be broken as there is no Oath.
So there is a massive difference for Catholics between a civil marriage and a Catholic one.

Really? So how come you can get married in civil ceremonies here?


As has been pointed out by numerous posters above, your view is wrong. The priest can obtain dispensation for certain cases.

That's not entirely true: if you get married at pałac ślubny or an RC church, you are legally married in Poland; if you get married elsewhere in Poland, you are not legally married in Poland.


Utter bollocks; I know several committed atheists who were married in RC churches. Please don't give people false information about a country you know virtually nothing about.


Marriages in Lutheran, Calvinist or Anglican churches are not civil ceremonies in Poland.

Ah I see, so that's why they usually have 2 ceremonies, one in the Church following one in a civil office.

Exactly: if you get married in a church other than a Catholic church, you aren't legally married, so you have to get legally married in a registry office. Some people might say that that is discrimination against people who are from faiths other than the Catholic faith.

just deal with it
You don't like it? Move somewhere else, Poland is 90% Catholic, and the Polish State has signed the Konkordat with the Vatican State.

Either that or just petition the European parliament to state that Poland should live up to her commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights.


Wrong as usual goofy, or are you just lying again: fewer than one in five Poles are practising Catholics. Which is probably why the RC in Poland is more than happy to let people who are not practising Catholics get married in RC churches, despite your claims to the contrary.

to be catholic u need to be baptised.
liar xd .. or just ignorant?

For the third time: people who are not practising Catholics most certainly can get married in RC churches in Poland. I know that because I have been to their weddings.


goofy, given that you claim only confirmed Catholics can get married in RC churches in Poland but many of us have been to weddings of people who are not practising Catholics but got married in RC churches in Poland, the person here who needs to answer the question of whether he is lying or ignorant is you.

Yes, something like 90% or 93%. I don't think they are regular churchgoers or participate fully, however. But otherwise I'd agree, a very high number of official Catholics.

This academic site says approx. 90 per cent of the population, other sites say anything between 89 and 95. princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Religious_denominations_in_Poland.html

I do not get this one...If you marry let's say at the pałac slubny in Warszawa Stare Miasto...you are legally married, wherever you go later on...If you decide to do a repeat in church that's your business, isn't it?

Main thing is to have the legal paperwork done?

The point that you're missing is that marriage in a RC church means that one doesn't need to also do the bit in the palac slubny; however, if you get married in any other type of church, you are not legally married and thus do need to do the palac slubny bit.

I got married in a polish Catholic Church, certainly not religious, about 6 months before went to see the church official, rather nice fella and more lenient than some of the other churches in town, he got the appropriate book out for the wife to be checked she had done all her duties as a catholic, wasn't married and had no children etc.... Then handed me a piece of paper which had about 7 promises I had to sign, I was not married, I loved no other, I would not take my wife to be away from the church, I wanted children, could have children and that on having them would allow them to be brought up as Catholics , once I had signed that and he had used god knows how many stamps from his desk I got another piece of paper.

This was for me to give my priest... Fail... So minister was explained sufficient for the bands to be read out in my local town for 3 weeks, signed then stamped and returned. A very old tradition when couples never ventured far... Anyway was married in Poland in a church , in polish and the vows in polish are ... Extreme.... I'm from UK

Oops just read properly, apologies to person asked question...

Merged: Getting married in Poland - do I need to be confirmed, and what documents are need?

Hi,

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide. I have looked through past questions on this (and other) websites, but have found various conflicting advice, so apologies for asking anything that has been asked before.

I am English and my girlfriend is Polish, we're both Catholics. We plan to get married in the summer of 2016 in Ostrołęka. We want to start booking venues etc as soon as possible; however, the more I look into things, the more I am concerned that there will be things I need to do beforehand, and whether or not I will have enough time. Also, she obviously speaks Polish, but I only do to a very basic level.

I intended to move to Poland about a year ago, so unregistered as a Resident back in the UK. Shortly after arriving in the country, our plans changed, and I have since been travelling around Europe, so haven't actually registered in any new country. It is possible that I will be settled by the time of the wedding, but I don't know yet. So the first question is: do you need to be registered in Poland (or any other country) in order to start getting any of the documents that are needed?

Secondly, what documents are needed? And do they all need to be translated? And how far in advance can I get them? From what I have read, I will need:

- a certificate of no impediment
- a baptism certificate
- a certificate of confirmation
- a marriage certificate from the church to say we can get married
- a certificate saying we went to the pre-marriage classes arranged by the church

Is there anything else needed?

Also, I have not been confirmed yet (only baptised/first communion). I have read that this might not matter, as some priests will still allow you to get married. Is that true, and would it still be a "concordat wedding" (if the priest allowed us to get married). Supposing we couldn't find a priest that would allow it, is it possible to get confirmed in Poland? How long would this take and would I have to do it in Warsaw, or one of the other big cities?

Also, for the pre-marriage classes, is it possible to find anywhere in Poland that will do them in English? And is there any way of completing them over the course of a weekend, or something like that (I've heard the lessons are normally spread out over a number of weeks).

Finally, does anyone have any details about how much these things might cost? (I have a vague idea of how much the ceremony might cost, so I am only asking about the costs relating to getting all the required documentation etc.) And would I need an official translator for the wedding, and how much do they charge roughly?

Thanks again for any help about anything that I have asked. It is much appreciated!!

I'm going to cut this short and tell you that this is not the place to ask these questions, nor will you receive any useful answers here.

The place to ask is at the parish you plan to get married at. It's basically up to the discretion of that particular pastor whether he will marry you or not, and what hoops you have to jump through to satisfy him. There is an enormous variation among pastors in this regard, so any general answer wouldn't be useful at all to any of the questions you posed. Some pastors are very strict, and others are more lax.

So have your fiancee get in touch with the pastor ASAP to determine what has to be done, and where it can be done. His are the only answers that count.

You are going to need to demonstrate that you are legally in Poland, which means you will need to show a maldunek, so you will need to registered.


Yes, all of them, by a sworn tranlator, no more than three months (possibly six months, but three would be more sure) before the big day.


You need to get that from the British consulate in Warsaw: they will rip you off, to the order of about £120, for putting up a notice and writing a letter. It takes a total of slightly under two weeks and you need to go there. The CNI has a 'use by date'; I think it's 90 days after issuing.


Whether you need those will depend to a certain extent to the priest (and quite possibly how generous your donation to the 'church roof repair fund' is).


Again, that is going to require finding the right priest; it can certainly be done (may require a generous donation to the 'church roof repair fund').


You will need your original birth certificate. They will keep it.

That gives you plenty of time to obtain the documents, get them translated and submit them to the proper offices. Just don't slack off and leave anything to the last minute.

Confirmation is probably going to be easier for you to get in the UK. It is generally administered by a bishop, so contact your diocesan chancellery. There is often a course and series of devotions that you have to attend. You also have to provide your baptismal and birth certificates.

One other thing you missed is that you might require a letter from your home pastor that you are a regular practicing Catholic in good standing. In Poland, many priests require a "report card" with stamps that you attended mass every Sunday, as well as all sessions of the pre-Cana course. They might also require one of you, as well. Some priests can be excruciatingly demanding. Others, on the other hand, are extremely lax, especially when cold hard cash is offered in abundance.