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What is the difference between sponsors and witnesses? Although they are concepts that are often confused, it should be noted that the participation of witnesses is a mandatory requirement to get married in church. The figure of the godparents, however, is optional.

Catholic Marriage Witnesses

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What is the function of a witness at a wedding? To get married in a church, you will need to have witnesses present twice, or three times if you are not getting married in a civil ceremony.

Marriage Information

The first instance will be at the time of filing the Marriage Information, which must be attended by two witnesses, not relatives, who have known them for at least two years.

There, after requesting an appointment for the marriage, the bride and groom will meet with the parish priest to express their intentions to marry, while the witnesses will attest that they wish to marry of their own free will.

The objective of this diligence, also called Matrimonial File It is Canon Law which gives legislative power to the Episcopal Conference and assigns the mission of carrying out this investigation to the priest.

To be a witness to a religious marriage, the requirement is to be of legal age and have a valid identity card.

Celebration of Marriage

On the day of the religious ceremony you must bring at least two marriage witnesses, who will have the task of signing the nuptial minutes The bride and groom and the parish priest will also sign them.

In this way, it will be certified that the sacrament was performed. For this instance, the witnesses can be family members, so many couples usually choose their parents, thus completing four witnesses.

Or, for example, you can choose a mutual friend as a witness for your religious wedding and the brother of one of them as the other. In other words, your witnesses do not have to be a married couple, although many parishes will ask if they have their sacraments up to date.

If they won't go through the civil

Finally, if you will only get married in church and not through the Civil Registry, there will be three instances in which they will have to present themselves with witnesses .

But in this case they must add a step prior to the celebration of the wedding, at the time of fulfilling the Manifestation that takes place in the office of the Civil Registry. At this appointment must be accompanied by two witnesses over 18 years, family or not, with their identity cards updated.

During the Manifestation, the contracting parties shall communicate to the civil officer, in writing, orally or by sign language, their intention to marry; while the witnesses shall declare that the bride and groom have no impediments or prohibitions to contract marriage.

For the Manifestation you can make an appointment in person or online by going to www.registrocivil.cl. There you will need to click on "online services", "reserve an appointment", "start procedure", "marriage" and "manifestation/registration religious ceremony".

Catholic marriage godparents

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Which groomsmen do you take at a religious wedding? Godparents are more of a symbolic figure, since Canon Law does not require them as such, unlike the sacraments of Baptism or Confirmation.

In this sense, the persons who sign the minutes of the ceremony are called godparents, i.e., they are commonly known as godparents, although they are really the witnesses of the religious marriage.

But they may also choose other religious marriage godparents to fulfill specific tasks during the ritual.

Among them, cushion sponsors, who will arrange the kneeler in prayer before the ceremony begins; wedding ring sponsors, who will carry and present the wedding rings; arras sponsors, who will hand them thirteen coins as a sign of prosperity; ribbon sponsors, who will wrap them with a ribbon as a symbol of sacred union; and bible and biblical sponsors, who will give them the wedding ring.rosary, who will take both objects to be blessed by the priest, and then give them to the bride and groom.

The role of the groomsmen at the religious wedding

How many godparents are needed for a Catholic wedding? Although only the godparents are essential, you may choose as many godparents as you deem appropriate according to the functions described.

Of course, when choosing your godparents, ideally they should be family members or close friends who profess the Catholic religion. This way, the task they will perform will make sense to them.

But beyond their specific role, whether it is to carry the rings or the arras, the godparents of a Catholic marriage in Chile assume a spiritual function of accompaniment in the journey of faith. That is, they are people on whom they can rely on at different times, either in family matters, in raising children or when they face their first difficulties ascouple.

That is why many brides and grooms choose Catholic married couples as godparents, on whom they can lean when they need advice.

While there are no godparents in a civil marriage, in a Catholic religious wedding you may choose your godparents, but first you must define your witnesses for the Manifestation, if necessary, for the Marriage Information and to sign the minutes at the wedding.