Meeting with priest tomorrow, what to expect...

Re: Meeting with priest tomorrow, what to expect...

• mica178 member

  

  October 2010 edited December 2011

  During your first meeting, expect the priest to try to ask you very broad general questions just to get to know you andyour fiance (congratulations on the engagement, by the way!).  You might also do more administrative things like look at the church calendar for available dates/times, set up the FOCCUS exam and talk about what kind of marriage preparation the archdiocese requires for couples to get married.  You might or might not fill out paperwork (or at least be given the paperwork to fill out on your own time) to apply to get married in the church (we didn't do this with the priest, he had us set up time with the parish receptionist).

  
  

  Regarding living together before marriage, priests vary as to how they approach it.  Some accept that many couples cohabitate and don't delve much further than to have you fill out the cohabitation section of the FOCCUS.  Others might decline to marry you unless you are willing to move to separate rooms.  The only way to find out is to talk with the priest.  

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• Capital_T

  

  October 2010 edited December 2011

  We actually met with the Deacon first (he's very nice btw) and he asked us questions on a form he had (general birthday, what are your parents' religion, have you been married previously, etc.) also, we had to get newly issued baptismal and confirmation certificates after this first meeting....also we did the FOCCUS and then set up another meeting to go over the FOCCUS like a week later.

  
  

  I agree with PP about the living together thing...each priest is different on how they view it, so, hopefully your priest is nice and you feel comfortable talking about it together.
  
  Our Deacon was very organized and gave us a list of everything we had to do and/or get before we get married, so, just have an open mind!

  My Planning Website Tied The Knot on 12-4-10!

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• eshaufle

  

  October 2010 edited December 2011

  We did our first "introductory" meeting with our priest awhile ago.  He was so completely wonderful and basically just asked us some general questions (i.e. why we wanted to be married in the Catholic church, how did you meet, etc).  He didn't ask us any personal questions at all and basically just penciled in our wedding date.  That was it.
  
  He said that since we didn't live in the area anymore that he would meet with us whenever we came up there for a weekend to visit my parents as he didn't want us to make any special trips.  We felt so at ease and excited to be married by such a personable priest!
  
  He said at our next meeting (which is Saturday) that we would do most of the paperwork (we had to go get our baptismal/confirmation certificates from our respective parishes) and take the FOCCUS test and talk more about that.  I'm assuming the questions might get more personal then but the first meeting with him totally put me at ease in discussing pretty much anything with him.

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• MeganBM member

  

  October 2010 edited December 2011

  Thanks for all the great info!  He actually had already asked where we were both from, have we been married before, and if we had kids.  Some pretty general questions.  What is the FOCCUS test ( what kind of questions?) 

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• MeganBM member

  

  October 2010 edited December 2011

  The meeting went well- very general quesions, he met with the both of us then separately.  At first he just asked things like where were we baptized, are we catholic, etc... then when separating us, some more personal questions, like do you plan on living your life as a catholic, have you ever signed a document or swore to be single " forever, etc... next we take the Focus test..

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