Coptic and Catholic Marriages

kokig

Actually i was more curious about Catholic and Coptic unions.....I know the subject line says Coptic vs. Greek.

mmhanna

Actually, in the Coptic Church, the priest will not marry a Catholic to a Coptic without baptism first. I am postive about this because I have seen 4 Catholic women get baptized in order to marry Coptic men from my church. Maybe it was just abouna? (but I don't think so). I think the reason is because Catholocism(spelling?) and Orthodoxy are very different. We have totally different interpretations of the Holy Trinity for example. The Catholics think that St. Mary is a part of it. They think that she is divine. Although in the Orthodox church we love and cherish her, we don't give her that much credit. I am pretty sure about this but not 100% so maybe you should ask more people.

Abanoub88

Mmhanna,
Yes. If you are baptised Catholic you must be baptised as a Copt to be married to another Copt. The Catholics, however, do not think St. Mary is part of the Trinity, but rather that she was, like our Savior, immaculately conceived. Our Coptic Church does not believe this.

mmhanna

Oh, well, I told u I wasn't sure, lol. I'm not an expert in the Catholic religion. Thanks for the correction.

Abanoub88

Glad to be of help mmhanna. God Bless :)

marys

just for more information... dunno if you need it.. but the only churches that the Coptic church will allow inter-marriage between are the indian, armenian, ethiopian, eritrean, and syrian orthodox churches...

kokig

Thanks a lot for everyone's input....I guess what it comes down to is not only a matter of difference in baptisim between us and the Catholics, but also other beliefs as well.

Does anyone have any idea where there is literature on differnces between Catholics and Orthodox beliefs?

Btw....Growing up before, i got married, i was Catholic and may parents weren't all that religous anway...But it was until recently that i've heard of Cathloics worshiping St. Mary....I wonder if there is a misconception out there of what the Catholics beleive as far as St. Mary is concerned....Or maybe its just me, not knowing enough about my previous denomination.


???

battata

i went to a catholic school and no, the catholics do not worship st mary, as often thought by the coptic church. they simply recognize her as a saint.

taishori3

Here's another difference...the Virgin Mary in the Catholic church has what they call "Immaculate Conception"...this means that the Virgin Mary was sinless...born without original sin...

Of course, we say that no one is without sin xept our Lord Jesus Christ. We reject the Immaculate Conception theory because if Mary was sinless, then God could have done the same with all of us...we all could have been born without Adam's sin. There would have been no reason for the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

In response to the natures of Jesus, the Catholics believe in Jesus' divinity and humanity...but they believe that they were 2 separate natures.

We, as mentioned b4, believe that His divinity and humanity never separated...they were united "without mingling, without confusion, and without alteration..."

Hope I helped,
Maryann

kokig

That's what I thought....Copts aren't the only one that have that misconception....An co-worker of mine also thought that as well....Maybe the churches should think about getting together again like they used to!

kokig

I could be wrong on this one ..But I always thought the Immaculate Conception had to do with how Jesus was conceived by Mary....Meaning w/o sexual relations which translates into Immaculate or w/o sin. It in no way has anything to do with Mary being a sinless human being, rather that the conception of Christ was Immaculate...(Immaculate ... Conception).

marys

nope... immaculate conception actually does deal with Saint Mary, and our church refutes it for the reason taishori3 has already mentioned.. but i see where you're coming from...
-mary

fhhanna

I actually attended Catholic private school growing up. The major difference is the view and saint mary (already mentioned). Additionally, I think (I'll try verify) the the Catholics are diaphysites in that they beleive in separate natures of Christ (as opposed to two natures in one).

I read somewhere that the Catholics also try to interpret the bible in many aspects more scientifically. I'm interested now, so I'll read up more on it.

mikesl

I urge everyone who participates in the forums to research such interesting topics before posting. Let us not simply add whatever we heard before or "think" is right since this may cause confusion. For example, regarding Immaculate Conception, it is not that hard to do some research on the internet to find the true dogmatic Catholic belief instead of trying to guess what it is.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia,
In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm

This is one of many new teachings that have entered the Catholic Church recently (1854) and was not agreed on by all Christian churches. The article in the Catholic Encycolpedia even states that "No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture." For the Orthodox Churches, our dogma comes straight from the Scripture. If something cannot be proved from the Scripture, it cannot be thought of as dogma.

Furthermore from an article contributed to Tasbeha.org:
Next issue is one on immaculate conception-does it concern our Lord Jesus or St. Mary? The supernatural Incarnation of the Only-Begotten Son the Word of God, of the H.S. and the Virgin Mary, is alone pure and immaculate. The immaculate conception was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX which asserts that from the first moment of her conception the blessed Virgin Mary was by the grace and privilege of the Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of mankind, kept free from all stain of original sin. In St. Mary’s canticle she said “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit
has rejoiced in God my Savior.” My Savior is a personal savior, meaning that she needed salvation. If she were immaculately conceived, she would not need a savior, but she did and therefore she was conceived with original sin of Adam and Eve. “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived Me.” Ps 51:5 “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin”Ecc 7:20 This dogma and belief definitely concerns our Lord Jesus Christ and not St. Mary.
Orthodoxy and Catholicism Article
Differences between Coptic & Catholic Church Forum Discussion

WWJD54

hi, i dont think you have to be baptized becuase my dad is catholic and my mom is coptic and they both got married in a orthodox church......or else maybe im wrong im not sure ???

marys

double check ur information... cuz i don't think that's possible..

Mark423

Your father was most likely baptized. I’m confident that it’s a necessity.

mikesl

There are some few exceptions to this rule. But you are right, officially a Catholic must be baptized in the Coptic church to marry a Copt.