Maybe an odd question....

We are also interfaith [he's Lutheran, I'm Catholic]
however, we did get married at my church so we had to do precana...

Honestly it's the BEST thing we ever did in our relationship. Pretty much was like *free* counciling, and wasn't just a religious experience.

Maybe call up one of your churchs and see if maybe they can steer you in the right direction?

---

Posted by autumnbride10

That's the thing...we are an interfaith couple, and may not marry in a church. Can you gals recommend anyplace else where we can go for something like pre-cana?

---

fh and i are an interfaith couple but we are getting married in a catholic church so were doing inter-faith pre-cana.

If you wont get married in the church then you can go to a therapist for pre-marital counseling...alot of them even do group sessions.

my pastor requires that we meet with him and his wife three times before he marries us for pre-marriage counseling. I'm actually looking forward to it!

---

Posted by MissAngel

I'm Catholic, he's Episcopalian and we're getting married in his church, but I wanted mine to recognize it as a sacrament so I called them up. In order to do so, we were asked to complete pre-cana (even though his church doesn't require it). If one of you is a Catholic, then perhaps you can take advantage of their pre-cana program too regardless of if you decide to get married there or not (like we did)?

---

I didn't know you can do this. So you can do the Catholic pre-cana even if you don't get married in a Catholic church? Do they charge you for that?

---

Posted by autumnbride10

I didn't know you can do this. So you can do the Catholic pre-cana even if you don't get married in a Catholic church? Do they charge you for that?

---

Yep! We did it - even though my FH wasn't too keen about it! We just paid the standard $100 fee that all of the other couples paid and we were good to go.

If they make you do everything that we're doing to get our marriage recognized, here's the process:
1) We met with the Catholic priest just to ask him what we need to do & we filled out some basic paperwork/questionairres (we were there 30 min. max).
2) We went to pre-cana
3) We had 2 family members each sign this form saying we were free to marry (i.e. we're not clergymembers or currently married)
4) He just looked up my baptismal info etc for me to make sure that I had all of my Catholic sacraments.

All in all, it was really painless & it made my mom VERY happy! My FH was happy too because he doesn't need to make his Catholic sacs & we don't need a Catholic priest to bless us or anything If you go through this process you can get married any where, by any one and have it recognized by your church...

---

Posted by MissAngel

---

Posted by autumnbride10

I didn't know you can do this. So you can do the Catholic pre-cana even if you don't get married in a Catholic church? Do they charge you for that?

---

Yep! We did it - even though my FH wasn't too keen about it! We just paid the standard $100 fee that all of the other couples paid and we were good to go.

If they make you do everything that we're doing to get our marriage recognized, here's the process:
1) We met with the Catholic priest just to ask him what we need to do & we filled out some basic paperwork/questionairres (we were there 30 min. max).
2) We went to pre-cana
3) We had 2 family members each sign this form saying we were free to marry (i.e. we're not clergymembers or currently married)
4) He just looked up my baptismal info etc for me to make sure that I had all of my Catholic sacraments.

All in all, it was really painless & it made my mom VERY happy! My FH was happy too because he doesn't need to make his Catholic sacs & we don't need a Catholic priest to bless us or anything If you go through this process you can get married any where, by any one and have it recognized by your church...

---

Thanks for the info! I'll look into it!

My brother and sister-in-law are interfaith, and did not get married in a church, however we have a family friend who is a deacon, and he met with them to do premarital counseling. So I'm sure if you call your church or any church, someone would be willing to do it. Also, some churches have one day programs called Saturdays for the engaged, which is premarital counseling, but not only for catholics. That's what we're doing. Hope this helps

My FH and I are seeing a professional therapist. I got the therapist's name from a friend who is a pastor. I would recommend either a professional therapist or something like pre-Cana. If you are going to use a professional therapist (let's say the pre-Cana thing doesn't work out), then ask reasonable people that you trust for a rec. Don't just use the yellow pages or your insurance co. directory. There are some quacks out there. Trust me - I used to work at a psych hospital and some of the staff were sicker than the patients!
Bravo to you for going forward with counseling. It can only do your marriage good!

---

Posted by HelenZ

I highly recommend the interfaith pre-cana at the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston- it's the Queens diocese. I'm lutheran, he's catholic, and it was just sooooo helpful for us.....I really felt like we talked about some important issues (privately....you don't have to speak in front of the group). I think it was $175- Carlos & Ana were our host couple- they were amazing, so if you could have them, go for it! good luck!

---

That's where we are going to do our pre-cana, so it's good to hear how helpful it was.

---

Posted by HelenZ

I highly recommend the interfaith pre-cana at the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston- it's the Queens diocese. I'm lutheran, he's catholic, and it was just sooooo helpful for us.....I really felt like we talked about some important issues (privately....you don't have to speak in front of the group). I think it was $175- Carlos & Ana were our host couple- they were amazing, so if you could have them, go for it! good luck!

---

hi! this is great to hear. I've been wanting to do pre-cana but didn't think it was possible for interfaith couples. can you FM me the contact info for the Immaculate Conception? thanks!!

---

Posted by bensgirl

---

Posted by HelenZ

I highly recommend the interfaith pre-cana at the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston- it's the Queens diocese. I'm lutheran, he's catholic, and it was just sooooo helpful for us.....I really felt like we talked about some important issues (privately....you don't have to speak in front of the group). I think it was $175- Carlos & Ana were our host couple- they were amazing, so if you could have them, go for it! good luck!

---

hi! this is great to hear. I've been wanting to do pre-cana but didn't think it was possible for interfaith couples. can you FM me the contact info for the Immaculate Conception? thanks!!

---

you'd have to coordinate reservations through the Diocese-
go to www.pre-cana.org

---

Posted by autumnbride10

Just curious if any of you are in or considering any pre-marital counseling?

---

are one of you Catholic? if so, it is recommended and preferred that you marry in the church and do the Catholic Pre-Cana. contrary to popular belief, the church does support inter-faith marriages. they want Catholics to feel that they can marry in their Church and receive the Sacrament.

Few stipulations:
1. you must complete interfaith Pre-Cana. they have sessions specifically geared to inter0faith couples that is different from the traditional pre-cana. one partner must be catholic.
2. you must complete an inter-faith dispensation (basically just paperwork, the priest will help you with this)
3. you must be physically married inside the church or otherwise have approval for not doing so... i.e. if the rabbi or other non-Christian clergy refuses to enter the church)... they understand that that happens sometimes, but they won't accept, 'well, i just want to get married at the beach or hall' because it might be a bit easier.
4. the non-catholic has to sign that he or she will agree to raise any children born from the marriage will be raised in the Catholic Church (there is no tracking of this, but they do ask this and hope that the non-catholic does this).

FM if you need more info.