How Bad is it To Get Married Outside the Catholic Church?

I'm going to assume that the person conducting this church was either Catholic or considering marrying a Catholic. Otherwise, the answer is quick and easy--it's not bad at all! No worries!

The thing that really intrigued me about this search was that it didn't land the visitor to my Catholic Blog, which gets a lot of traffic on Catholic marriage and Catholic divorce related strings. No, this one led to What's Wrong Around Us?, where there is exactly one post referencing the fact that a lot of Catholics get married outside the church because they don't want to jump through the hoops. That single post--from last March--is buried among rape cases, punitive damages issues, speculation about why the bees are disappearing, a few objections to the world of SpongeBob Squarepants, a note about buying on ebay, and a very popular post on birth control for middle schoolers. (Note to Google: This process may need a little refining.)

But I digress.

"How bad is it to get married outside the Catholic church?"

If you care enough to ask this question, it's about as bad as it gets. If you've been baptized Catholic and are married outside the church without permission, the marriage is invalid in the eyes of the church. Living with your spouse in an invalid marriage has the same ramifications as living with someone OUTSIDE of marriage. You can't make a good confession as long as the situation continues and you haven't resolved to change it. You can't take communion.

If a technicality is the only problem--that is, if you just CHOSE to get married outside the church or did it in a hurry and there was no reason that you couldn't have been married within the church, you can probably get your marriage "regularized" and blessed by the church--talk to your priest. If there was an impediment to the marriage, like a prior marriage of one of the spouses, that will have to be resolved before the marriage can be recognized.