This article got me thinking about Church rules for weddings:

[hedgehog]

http://ncronline.org/news/wedding-season


When I heard that some dioceses require a 1 year waiting period, I started to question why any waiting period is required. What's the point of forcing people to wait when the priest doesn't have the time to get to know the couple and maybe say something if there is a problem. Even so, can anyone really predict that a marriage will or will not work? My cousin married a kid she thought she knew well, and the families knew each other. She was the apple of her father's eye and beloved by her brothers. The couple moved to another city and her husband started beating her. If she could get herself in that situation, anyone could.

[47of74]

1. I can tell you one rule I am glad of...

I can tell you one rule I am glad of when it comes to church weddings (and yes I know I am about to put my foot in it up to my knees). That's the requirement that church weddings be held inside instead of outside. That's one thing I'm not really all that fond of, because the weather can often be uncooperative, or it's ten thousand degrees outside in the shade. I'd rather be in a nice, air conditioned building where it doesn't matter if it's really hot out or raining buckets outside.

[hedgehog]

2. My daughter was married ina church with the music provided by fellow members of the choir.

The priest was someone who'd known her well from Neumann Center and he'd met the groom before we did. He teared up during the sermon and before the wedding when we asked him to bless the creche we and her siblings got for her. Several friends served as Eucharistic ministers. The reception was at a campgrounds with a big tent with dancing in the pavilion and catering by a barbecue place. Her father and grandmother cooked a pancake breakfast for the survivors the next day. (That K of C experience came in handy.)So no one was a stranger at the ceremony, and everyone had a good time at the reception without anyone breaking the bank.

What I really hate is someone showing up for a church wedding who hasn't been to church since high school. It's not a case of having Jesus as a guest so much as having a nice background for the photos! It's also bad when the bride and groom attend Mass faithfully and the parish priest doesn't know them from Adam and Eve. Parishes which set up an obstacle course for couples trying to arrange a wedding are also pretty bad. I heard of one bride who spent several weeks trying to get a call back from the rectory so she could arrange a meeting with the priest.

In this diocese, you must be married in a church unless you happen to be a relative of a priest in which case anything goes. The policy is given with a long string of reasons describing the sacred nature of the sacrament and the dignity and sacred nature of the church space. This is the same diocese busily closing churches and selling them.