Need Helpful Advice for Catholic Wedding Preparations?

I am a greek melkite catholic getting remarried; and have my annulment completed. My fiance is protestant, however does not practice it, but he goes with me to my church.





For the marriage preparations, the priest is requesting my fiance's baptism certificate. My mother-in-law to be is scrambling to find it. If we can't find it, the priest advised that his church should have copies. Also, the priest is asking a letter from his church validating that my fiance has never been married. Now the problem is that my fiance's church no longer exists. It was called All Nation Foundation in Wrightwood, CA. We cannot find anything about it online.





I asked the priest what if my fiance was baptised as a melkite catholic to help speed the process; and his reply was that there is no time; it takes months and months. I then inquired about the letter mentioning he wasn't married before. The priest replied that if my parents knew him well enough, then they could place their hands on the gospel and swear to it. The issue is how would they know if he was married while I was married in way back in the past? I know in my heart he was never married before. This will be his first marriage and has no kids.





What do I do? I would like a church wedding. But if I can't get married in the Catholic church, where else could I get married? Wouldn't churches like to take your money so you can get married in it?





I do not want to get married at city hall. Please assist with serious answers.





Thank you!Need Helpful Advice for Catholic Wedding Preparations?
Marriages and divorces are public records. You should be able to do a search to verify that no marriage licenses have been taken out in his name and the same for a divorce. I suggest that you talk to a lawyer about how to do this. A lawyer may also be able to track down where the records of his former church are kept.





And you are right not to get married in city hall. You went to all that trouble to get your first marriage annulled so don't undo that work now. If it takes a little longer to do it right and get married in the Catholic church, than that is what you need to do. In other words, you may have to postpone your wedding until you find the baptismal record and can prove that he was not married before.





God bless you and your forthcoming marriage!Need Helpful Advice for Catholic Wedding Preparations?
I would imagine you'd have to know what denomination that church was, and try to track down the archives of that denomination.





I'm actually not sure if other denominations archive their sacramental records the way we do. Hmmm.... let me star this question, and then maybe one of my contacts will see it and have a better answer.