If you are foreign citizens and live abroad, and have decided to marry in Italy — either in a parish or in another authorised church, such as one of the city’s monumental churches — the first thing to be done is to go to the parish nearest to where you live so as to ask the parish priest regarding a marriage preparation course: this course will help you to discover and examine in depth the beauty of Christian Marriage.

Your parish priest is that of the territorial parish of the place where you have your home: it is to him that you have to go for information regarding paperwork and bureaucratic procedures.

As for the date of your wedding, keep in mind that regarding certain important matters you will need to seek advice from the priest in charge of the church where you wish to get married in Rome, as there are certain periods in which weddings are forbidden here in Rome, for example during Lent.

If you have chosen to get married in one of the monumental churches of Italy, the parish priest who is looking after the paperwork for marriage will have to sign a certificate of acknowledgement («attestato di presa visione») that you will have received from a priest in charge of the church where you have decided to get married.

After the marriage course, together with your parish priest you will have to undertake the pre-marriage enquiry, a process — which includes gathering the necessary religious documents — by which the parish priest, in name of the Church, welcomes and authorises the celebration of your marriage. This pre-marriage equiry is to begin not more than six months before the date of the wedding.

At the end of the pre-marriage equiry, the parish priest will ask your local Bishop to sign the permission for marriage; all the paperwork will then be sent to us either by express courier or given to you for you to deliver it to us.

After the marriage course, together with your parish priest you will have to undertake the pre-marriage enquiry, a process — which includes gathering the necessary religious documents — by which the parish priest, in name of the Church, welcomes and authorises the celebration of your marriage. This pre-marriage equiry is to begin not more than six months before the date of the wedding.

At the end of the pre-marriage equiry, the parish priest will ask your local Bishop to sign the permission for marriage; all the paperwork will then be sent to us either by express courier or given to you for you to deliver it to us.

Once our office have received the documents — either directly from you or from the express courier — we shall proceed to fill out the Final Document called «documento quattordici» («document fourteen») which will be given to you or to a representative of yours in possession of a signed mandate, so that it be taken, before the celebration, to the church where the marriage will take place. Please note that in Italy it is obbligatory to celebrate either a religious marriage with civil effects, or to have the civil marriage before the religious celebration.

For this reason we shall issue the Final Document, «documento quattordici» («document fourteen») only after having received the certificate of your civil marriage (if you are already civilly married) o after having received the «Nulla Osta Consolare» (Consular Permission) from your Consulate here in Italy (if you are celebrating a «concordatory marriage», a religious marriage with civil effects).

Only then shall we be able to issue the the Final Document that you or your representative is to take to the church where you are to be married. If you have any doubts or problems, do not hesitate to contact me!