Has Anyone Gone Through This??

[Cowboy's Girl]

As some of you might remember, our priest hasn't exactly been on the ball with everything and has caused both of us quite a bit of stress for the duration of our wedding planning! On Sunday we hear (from a different priest at our church) that the priest that is marrying us is transferring to another church. We caught him, briefly, after mass and he basically said, "Oops...I'll call you guys and we'll talk about it" Well, we still haven't heard from him. I just called the parish office and he is on vacation for the next three weeks and then the following Sunday is his last mass at our church!! We get married in 38 days, and he won't even be around to talk to us for the next 20 of those days.
Has anyone else had to change their priest/pastor this close to the wedding date? How did you make it through??

[Julz518]

OMG, I can't believe he is being so irresponsible! I think you need to look for another priest IMMEDIATELY.

Does your church require pre-marital counseling, and have you started that yet? That is the only thing I can thing of that might complicate things, if they required a set number of hours or sessions tha tyou have to squeeze in. Of course, there is still the matter of FINDING another priest, but other than that, unless you were horribly attached to that particular priest, I don't think it should be too big a deal.

Are you doing anything out of the ordinary for your service that they will have to become familiar with? Have you already started planning your service at all? You don't really need to have your officiant nailed down in order to pick readings and songs, etc. unless something is required by the church. And any priest could tell you what those requirements are so you can start planning.

[Heather]

I agree with Julz for everything. See if you can find someone else, and definitely find out if you need to take any classes.

[Shanoden]

Curious here, is it you or him or both that are Catholic? I was reading your other post about Catholic weddings.

I haven't had to deal with what you are dealing with. (Thank the Lord!) But, my Catholic wedding has been well.. a trip so far.

They should have a priest already lined up to take his place, sometimes there is a delay sometimes there is not. You may want to check with your Pastoral Associate to get the whole scoop on the situation. Typically the Pastoral Associate would be the one keeping the wedding on schedule and not the Priest. (wonderful info to know now right)

Also a Deacon can perform the wedding in a Catholic church; you would need a priest to lead the mass but not to actually marry you.

As long as you have a priest to the gospel reading you should be ok and work with the Deacon for the actual vows.

P.S. Did you get your programs all worked out? I got a nice book about Catholic weddings from my church that has great information about how to set up a Catholic program. One of the best things to include is the songs (which need the approval from the copyright owner for you to reproduce, but the music director can help you with that) and responses and prayers. It helps make people feel more welcome. Catholic weddings, for non-Catholics can make them feel really out of place. Anyhow if you want me to scan and mail you a PDF of the pages I’m happy to if you need more help.

[Heather]

Shanoden - please check the date of a post when responding. She's already married or will be this weekend.