Polish English marriage in England- advice please

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Jan 6, 10, 18:25 #1

Hi folks, i've had a quick look around the site but couldn't find what i was looking for so here goes stupid question time ;-)

Bit of background, my girlfriend and i have been together for 3 years. I am divorced and have a 13 year old son. Son and girlfriend get on great so no problems there. We've been over to see her folks a few times, met the family, been to weddings etc and after the initial misgivings everything's ok on that front as well. So far so good :-)
So i decided to make an honest woman of her and popped the question on holiday (egypt) last month, she said Tak so all is well in the world of sean :-)
This is the bit where we need help from the forum friendlies please.
My girlfriend would dearly like to get married in a catholic church, obviously she is catholic, and i am also technically but i would best describe myself as spiritual but not religious (if that makes sense). Also i am divorced and am not sure how the catholic church views this in the 21st century, certainley when i last regularly attended church (25 years ago) it was not possible to re-marry in a catholic church.
Then there's the legal side of it, what special docments or polish laws need to be respected in england? we've heard of documents needing translating etc etc but can't seem to find a definative answer

So, we would both really appreciate any help either from personal experience or maybe you could point us in the direction of websites or books with definative information on english polish marriage in the UK.

Thanks for reading and thanks for any help

Cheers, Sean

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Jan 6, 10, 19:14 #2

sean0801:

Also i am divorced and am not sure how the catholic church views this in the 21st century

Hi Sean,

Since the catholic church does not recognise divorce the only chance of marrying in a catholic church would be to have your first marriage annuled I think. Not my specialist subject but there are certain circumstances that would allow annulment but few people seem to meet them. Annulment typically takes over a year so I've heard. All in all it look like you will be heading for a civil ceremony only I'm afraid.

There were a few threads around about the legal side of marriage on here so it's worth your while using the search facility. I seem to recall most of them were for marriages in Poland rather than in the UK.

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Edited by: jonni Jan 6, 10, 19:30 #3

sean0801:

and i am also technically

This might change things.

Was your previous marriage a Catholic ceremony? Were you formally Catholic at the time? If the answers are No and Yes, in that order, you may still be able to marry in a Catholic ceremony.

If however the marriage was a Catholic ceremony, you may still be able to get a church divorce (there's a thread on that somewhere here) which is easy to get if you were very young when you married. Anullments are harder to get but still possible.

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Jan 6, 10, 20:25 #4

jonni:

Was your previous marriage a Catholic ceremony? Were you formally Catholic at the time? If the answers are No and Yes, in that order, you may still be able to marry in a Catholic ceremony.

If however the marriage was a Catholic ceremony, you may still be able to get a church divorce (there's a thread on that somewhere here) which is easy to get if you were very young when you married. Anullments are harder to get but still possible.

Thanks for the reply, No my previous marriage was not a Catholic ceremony and i was a catholic only in so much as i was christened a catholic and brought up a catholic as a child, went to church schools etc etc. I was kinda hoping that catholic attitudes had relaxed over the years to be honest because it's important to my fiancee. I guess my next move must be to talk to a priest.

Thanks

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Jan 6, 10, 21:09 #5

Hey Sean,

I'm Polish and got married to an Irish fella recently so maybe can help u a bit in here.
I'm guessing the documents u need to provide would be the same in UK and in ROI.
We got married in Registry Office in Ireland and planning a catholic church wedding in Poland soon. It's a little bit different than your case but we went through all the options so know exactly what you may need.

If you married in catholic church before (1st marriage) u need to get it annulled. U know that already.
While waiting for annulment (if you wanna go that way) you can plan a civil ceremony. Most of the Registry Offices in Poland have all the facilities to make yr day very special, with champagne and all that stuff...
For civil ceremony we needed to get appointment 3 months before the wedding to provide all the documents (the same in Poland). You should call the office asap to check if the date that u've chosen is available. U r gonna need to bring yr birth cert (translated), yr fiancee birth cert, yr divorce cert translated (don't know the exact name of the document), your passports. We had to bring or witnesses copy of the passports as well.
We had a quick interview in the office to prepare some kind of marriage notification and that was it.
On the day don't forget to bring yr passports and yr witnesses should bring them too.

We got married in a civil ceremony in ROI before the church wedding in Poland to avoid some of the paperwork, cause it's a pain in the ass to fly back and forward to Poland just to bring the paperwork (we live in Ireland).

I bet ya the church wedding is gonna be even bigger pain for u than a civil one.
I know cause mine is a pain...
For church wedding you need to get appointment with a priest to fill in the paperwork - again it's an interview. If you are not very religious I wouldn't even mention it to a Polish priest, unless he's a very nice fella.
The docs you need:
- christening certs
- confirmation certs
- passports
- Pre-marriage course cert
- if both of u live in UK you should go to a priest in yr Parish and get him to give you permission to marry in different Parish than yr own
- and of course the annulment cert from the first marriage.

Hope I helped a little bit. The best way is to simply call them up and ask what u need to bring.

Good luck

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Jan 8, 10, 10:48 #6

Thanks for the reply, very much appreciated.

I dont know why the church makes it so difficult but it even makes my girlfriend think about a different ceremony, we might just go to the caribean and get married.

I have no idea where my baptism and confirmation documents would be and i dont have contact with my parents to ask them. They're dead, so pretty hard to find out ;-)

There is a Polish church in manchester that i used to attend when i was a child, i will ask the questions there and if the catholic church wont marry us, then it's their loss as far as i'm concerned.

As much as dislike the church, i have to much respect for the ideals to lie to the priest

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Jan 8, 10, 11:08 #7

sean0801:

No my previous marriage was not a Catholic ceremony

Then you will have no problem getting married in church. This would be the case in Poland. I can't see the Church in England having different rules. Remember, the Church is not against you and wants you to be married in church. See if the local priest is friendly and will make your preparation painless. He may have good advice how to obtain your certificates of past sacraments. Stealing our women, huh? :)

MadMaMa

Oct 7, 10, 18:09 #9

Yes.. I had my marriage of 10 years annulled by the church.. There are websites out there where you can get the forms and you have to have people who are going to back up your story as to why you were divorced.. Usually the accepted reasons is adultery, abuse , either physical or mental, stuff like that.. It took probably close to a year but I received mine.. You have to go to the Diocese for your State, they should have a website.. Hope that helps

Seamus01

Dec 17, 10, 14:37 #10

Sean if you were baptised you are still a Catholic in the eyes of the Church. If you were legally divorced then all you need is a statement of non-impediment.

To saitisfy the powers that be in Poland you will need Cert of Non-impediment, copy of long birth cert, copy of Baptism cert, maybe a copy of your confirmation stuff from school. You will have to satisfy both the Starostwo and the Priest.

I was brought up RC but have been an atheist since probably the age of 13. The Polish priest who married us knew this, yet as long as I recognised and accepted the Catholc religion my wife has there was no problem, after all I had been baptised a Catholic and there is only one way out of that in the Churches eyes !!!

Good luck

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sean0801Threads: 1 Posts: 4 Joined: Jan 6, 10 ♂	Jan 8, 10, 11:14 #8
Damn right, ;-)