Catholics are not allowed to attend weddings that are not Catholic.
But the debate is still on if one partner was baptized in the Catholic church (which they call "invalid weddings") but attending them is also pretty much out of the question too.
But the debate is still on if one partner was baptized in the Catholic church (which they call "invalid weddings") but attending them is also pretty much out of the question too.
Quote:According to Jesuit Mitch Pacwa, there is only one marriage debate for Catholics, and it’s something that comes up regularly on his radio show: “Is it okay to attend a wedding when a baptized Catholic gets married outside of the Church?”
The reason behind the debate is because the Code of Canon Law states: “Only those marriages are valid which are contracted before the local [bishop], pastor or a priest or deacon delegated by either of them who assist, and before two witnesses” (1108 §1).
According to him, maintaining peace within families is very important, but there is also the question of motive: “Are they trying to put me in an uncomfortable position to prove their point? Or do they simply not see that there is an issue at stake?”
According to Father Perez-Lopez, this whole issue demands an exercise of the virtue of prudence. A great number of important circumstances may change the moral scenario. On the one hand, one certainly wants to avoid cooperation in evil and scandal. “By attending these marriages, you don’t want to give the impression that you approve of their not following the canonical form of marriage,” he said. “You need to make it clear you do not agree with that. Moreover, one should avoid being an active participant of the ceremony.”
Rita Ciavarella of Bismarck, N.D., said she and her husband, Rick, made the decision not to attend invalid weddings.
“When our four children were young, I told them that Dad and I would always love them, but if they married outside of the Church, we would not be able to go.”
https://www.ncregister.com/news/should-c...the-church
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"