“I’m marrying a Presbyterian whose dad is a minister, so we want to get married in her church. Will I still be considered married by the Catholic Church?”

Absolutely, if the requirements of canon law are met. A couple who agrees to marry are the actual ministers of the sacrament. It is they who make the sacrament “happen,” not the minister.

Interfaith and interchurch couples face unique challenges to building strong marriages.

Before Juliann Richards met Neal Levy, she didn’t doubt that she’d marry a fellow Catholic someday. After all, Richards was raised Catholic, attended Catholic school, grew up mostly around fellow Catholics, and knew she wanted her children raised with the same faith.

“For many years, I told myself (and others) that I was going to the nearby Catholic college so I could meet a nice Catholic boy and get married,” Richards recalls.

As a Presbyterian working for the Catholic Church, Bonnie Mack approaches her ministry from a unique perspective. She has been married to a Catholic for 42 years, and for the last 20 she’s volunteered and worked with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s Marriage and Family Life Office.