Weddings that are recognized as valid by the Catholic Church

Q: Are weddings that take place in other churches (such as Lutheran or Baptist) recognized as valid by the Catholic church?

At the very end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus proclaimed, “All authority has been given to Me, both in heaven and on earth.” Subsequently, Christ gave that same authority to the Church so that she may complete her mission with His authority until He comes again. Based on that, the Church has always claimed that she has the power, as the catechism says, “to teach, to govern  and to sanctify.”

The Church’s marriage laws make up one of the “precepts of the Church” (which include the laws for fasting, supporting the Church, holy days of obligation, etc.) that Catholics are required to follow. They, like the other precepts, flow from the Church’s authority to govern. The Church may be likened to a garden. A garden has two elements, one from God and the other from man. God and God alone provides the living plants, but a man can take what God has given and, through careful cultivation and artistic arrangement, make it more beautiful and pleasing by making it more orderly. That’s the difference between a garden and a jungle.