Interfaith Wedding

Hi, can someone please send me the contact info for Rabbi Alan Block? Or if anyone knows another rabbi that does interfaith weddings with a co-officiate.


I'm Jewish and my FH is Catholic. He called Monsignor Lisante, but the secretary said that the Monsignor will only marry you if you promise to raise the children Catholic. I thought he did weddings co-officiating with Rabbi Block, so what the secretary said is very confusing to me. Maybe we should have called the rabbi first, but we didn't have his contact info.

Hi! I had an interfaith wedding and we needed a rabbi to officiate with DH's family's pastor. We ended up going with Rabbi Roger Ross ((link to site) who was fabulous! We are still getting compliments. People couldn't believe that he and the pastor had never worked together before. Definitely give him a call!

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Posted by AmyElizabeth

Hi! I had an interfaith wedding and we needed a rabbi to officiate with DH's family's pastor. We ended up going with Rabbi Roger Ross ((link to site) who was fabulous! We are still getting compliments. People couldn't believe that he and the pastor had never worked together before. Definitely give him a call!

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We're using Rabbi Ross as well.

I'm not sure what Msgr Lisante does and does not do, but to be married in the church the Catholic spouse does have to promise to 'do everything in your power' to raise the children in the church. However, this can be interpreted in many ways. My priest was saying this varies. It can mean we have a vigorous debate about it and decide it's not what's best for us.

Monsignor Lisante does co-officiate with Rabbi Block. I spoke with Rabbi Block, but unfortunately lost his number -- sorry! I am doing interfaith and was going to use them - I have heard they are great.

Basically, if you do interfaith and want the marriage to be recognized by the Catholic church as the sacrament of marriage, you and FH have to sign something saying that you committ to try your best to raise your kids catholic. And you have to do pre-cana (we're doing interfaith pre-cana this weekend!)

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Posted by L Abou

Monsignor Lisante does co-officiate with Rabbi Block. I spoke with Rabbi Block, but unfortunately lost his number -- sorry! I am doing interfaith and was going to use them - I have heard they are great.

Basically, if you do interfaith and want the marriage to be recognized by the Catholic church as the sacrament of marriage, you and FH have to sign something saying that you committ to try your best to raise your kids catholic. And you have to do pre-cana (we're doing interfaith pre-cana this weekend!)

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Only the Catholic spouse has to sign.

Well, I have no problem with an interfaith pre-cana, being that it's INTERFAITH and not leaning towards Catholic. But I can't sign something that says I'd try to raise my kids Catholic. I've discussed it with my FH and the children would be mostly raised Jewish, but would learn about both religions...combo platter kids, as I like to put it.

I guess we want the marriage to be recognized by the church, but I really want the marriage license to go through under the rabbi and not the monsignor. So, while we'd try to make the ceremony 50/50, I guess the main officiator would be the rabbi.

And I heard Rabbi Block & Monsignor Lisante were great too, that's why I've been trying to look into using them. Plus, FH wants the Catholic officiant to be a man an not a woman...

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Posted by redrose0605

Well, I have no problem with an interfaith pre-cana, being that it's INTERFAITH and not leaning towards Catholic. But I can't sign something that says I'd try to raise my kids Catholic. I've discussed it with my FH and the children would be mostly raised Jewish, but would learn about both religions...combo platter kids, as I like to put it.

I guess we want the marriage to be recognized by the church, but I really want the marriage license to go through under the rabbi and not the monsignor. So, while we'd try to make the ceremony 50/50, I guess the main officiator would be the rabbi.

And I heard Rabbi Block & Monsignor Lisante were great too, that's why I've been trying to look into using them. Plus, FH wants the Catholic officiant to be a man an not a woman...

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You'd never have a female Catholic officiant.

One of the things we were told was that the priest had to be the main officiant.

Did you have any luck with FH's parish priest?

Well, as far as female officiants I guess they were just ministers or paster's of some kind and not catholic.

Why would the Priest have to be the main officiant? Even if we were to have a chuppah, and a ketuba, etc? Shouldn't that part be up to the couple?

And I should really see if FH can ask his parish priest or find someone there, but he said that none of the people from his church that he knew growing up are still there.

I am using Rabbi Swerdlow and Father Malone -- they work together and are from Northport VA Medical Center -- and Rabbi Swerdlow is definitely taking the lead on things. We are having a ketubah signing pre-ceremony if that is what you mean about the lead officiant...If you want info let me know

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Posted by redrose0605

Well, as far as female officiants I guess they were just ministers or paster's of some kind and not catholic.

Why would the Priest have to be the main officiant? Even if we were to have a chuppah, and a ketuba, etc? Shouldn't that part be up to the couple?

And I should really see if FH can ask his parish priest or find someone there, but he said that none of the people from his church that he knew growing up are still there.

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Well in order for it to be recognized by the church you really will have to go through his parish at some point. He'll need his original baptismal certificate, he'll also need to file a disparity of worship form and get clearance from the bishop for the ceremony to be outside of a church and outside of the normal order.

We are having a ketubah, etc (we're using a tallit wrapped around us instead of a chuppah), but the priest is going to be the person to sign our marriage license and I guess be the legal officiant. The Rabbi would be the one to sign the ketubah. FH and I were both fine with agreeing to the priest being the one who signs the marriage license, etc. I don't really see why it matters. This is just on paper. Our ceremony will be totally co-officiated and there will be a lot of back and forth

Also, just so you know, there's a lot more to the Catholic ceremony than there is to the Jewish ceremony. For a kosher jewish wedding you don't even need a rabbi, your FH just needs to give you an item of value and say 10 words in Hebrew as witnessed by 2 obbservant jews not related to you or each other. Everything else is just minihag, or custom, but not necessary.

The church has a lot more that is 'required' in the ceremony and they have a lot of other requirements such as the forms I mentioned and Pre-Cana. We did interfaith Pre-Cana. It is definitely from the Catholic perspective, but the interfaith setting recognized our differences, etc. FH agreed it was one of the best things we've done together and we both loved it.

I would also say that whether FH knows people at the church or not, you guys should immediately set up an appointment with a priest or deacon there to go over all of this. The church generally requires you to meet with them 6 months in advance. The paperwork for an interfaith wedding also takes time, and interfaith pre-cana is not offered all the time.

Even if you don't use someone from the church as your officiant, it's best if you get the process started ASAP.

We're using Rabbi Roger Ross who is co-officiating with my parish priest who had NO problem at all officiating. You might have better luck than you think finding an officiant through the church.


ETA: I am like the world's leading expert on Jewish/Catholic interfaith weddings at this point I think, so if you have any other questions, let me know. LOL

rabbi block - 516-334-0887
msgr lisante - 516-541-3270

we are using them for our interfaith wedding

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Posted by HSsweethearts

I would also say that whether FH knows people at the church or not, you guys should immediately set up an appointment with a priest or deacon there to go over all of this. The church generally requires you to meet with them 6 months in advance. The paperwork for an interfaith wedding also takes time, and interfaith pre-cana is not offered all the time.

Even if you don't use someone from the church as your officiant, it's best if you get the process started ASAP.

We're using Rabbi Roger Ross who is co-officiating with my parish priest who had NO problem at all officiating. You might have better luck than you think finding an officiant through the church.


ETA: I am like the world's leading expert on Jewish/Catholic interfaith weddings at this point I think, so if you have any other questions, let me know. LOL

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100% agree with everything, me and FH are going through the process right now ... we just met with the rabbi and going with rabbi ari fridkis and
for the priest , msgr keane,who is personal friends with my father