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Since You Asked

Since You Asked
Marriage
 
Q My boyfriend (who is Baptist) and I are seriously dating and I would love for him to "pop the question". I don't want to force him to convert, but let him come to the Church when he's ready. But I don't know if we can be married in the eyes of the Church if he is not Catholic.  
- future fiance
 
A

You are very wise to not want to force your boyfriend to convert; that type of decision needs to come from a person's own personal conviction.  A person who converts simply to please another seldom makes a good Catholic!  To help him along. I would strongly suggest that you make his conversion a part of your daily prayer.

As for getting married in the Church that does not pose a problem.  Obviously the church has as the ideal a Catholic marrying another Catholic.  In a multi-religious culture like ours, however, many Catholics inevitably enter into mixed marriages.  In such situations the priest who is preparing you for marriage will obtain from the Diocesan Bishop the appropriate permission for the Catholic party to validly marry a non-Catholic.  The one thing that you will have to do, is to promise to remain faithful to your faith and to do all within your power to have your children baptised and raised in the Catholic faith.

- Fr. Bob