Letters of freedom

Me and H2b lived in another town for a year together, a few years back. If you were me would u gets letters of freedom?? Our priest doesnt know we lived there..

My understanding was that you only need letters of freedom if you were baptised/received your communion/confirmation in a different parish to the parish that your getting married in?

Technically you should get them, but you might get away with it! I know a girl who went to college abroad for a year but as priest didn't know, and she never said, there was nothing about it!

h2b is afraid if we dont get it, that our marriage wont be properly legal, but I dont see the point in getting it, we lived together - I know he didnt get married there, and he knows I didnt get married there!

You require letters of freedom from any parish you lived in and from the parish(es) you were baptised, confirmed or made your communion in. We have lived out of both of our parishes for a number of years but our priest told us that as we don't own a property or have our family in the parish we currently reside in then it isn't a problem - i.e our lives are still more or less at home rather than where we work! I'd leave it, save hassle on yourselves!!!

we also lived together in a different parish for a year coming up to the wedding but we never bothered to get letters of freedom from them as they didn't even know who we were ! it wasn't like we were involve in the parish/community in any way. We just got them from our "home" parish.

Strictly speaking, the rule is that each person must get a letter of freedom from any parish they have lived in for more than 6 months since age 18 or since you left full time education. You also need copies of your Baptismal Cert and Confirmation Cert. All of the above must be dated less than 6 months before your wedding. Some priests will be more flexible than others on this and will use an element of discretion. My home priest (as in where I grew up) didn't count years in college as you are still returning home regularly and considered dependant on parents. I mentioned my previous parish in Dublin where I was for 2 years and he said "you were home every 3 or 4 weeks I'm sure so we won't mind that!". So he just asked me for the letter from the parish we currently live in to keep things right. It was just a matter of ringing the parish office anyway and it was posted out to me, so it's not a big deal to get. In most cases the priest or parish office wouldn't know you from Adam anyway so the whole process is a bit of a nonsense but it's easy enough to deal with. If you are really getting hassle from your priest and he wants letters from everywhere including your year in Australia (!) it is easier to go to a Solicitor and get him/her to witness a sworn affidavit from both of you that neither of you has ever married. This is an acceptable alternative to your letters of freedom. HTH.

You wont need to - I've lived away for years in different places and I couldn't go round to all those parishes - I always came home at weekends and went to Mass there. I said nothing and the priest filled out the form. The marriage will be legal of course. The priest said to be sure to get the certs in as there could be a check done on that after (by the church I presume)

I'd get them - its not difficult to do.

I wouldn't bother. If nobody knows It wont matter. My fiance has lived in different places and we have met with the priest and he siad not to bother. The priest!!! We have not got ours yet but it will be our home parishes and were we live now.