Handfasting at a catholic wedding?!?

[hedgehog]

handfasting?

Friends of the family were just married today in a Catholic ceremony sans Mass. Although the parish has a fantastic deacon, the pastor performed the ceremony (emphasis on performed!) After a 25 minute sermon, the vows and blessing and exchange of rings, he whipped out a golden handkerchief, compared it his own golden stole, and tied their hands together, telling them it was an old Catholic custom!

This was not discussed with the couple beforehand. If a couple wanted to do this, I wouldn't mind. It's just that this priest has a habit of making shit up and pulling stuff out of his ass without regard for anyone else in the community. He thinks that because he went to seminary 40 years ago, he knows more about religion than anyone else around. He devoted the sermon on December 12 this year to announcing that that day was the Feast of John the Baptist and bemoaning the fact that we in America don't celebrate the day with bonfires as they do in Europe and Quebec. The Feast of John the Baptist is June 24 and the lighting of bon fires is a remnant of pagan fertility rites! After sending out a letter that week urging us to donate more to the parish so it could better serve our immigrant community, he totally ignored the Feast of Guadalupe!

[FarLeftRage]

1. Dude sounds like a real weiner!

I am so happy that the Priests in my small parish are more "current" and tolerant of Vatican II.
Sorry to read of this old fashioned "stogie" of a Priest you have.

[hedgehog]

3. This guy ignores anything out of Vatican II he doesn't like,

runs a charismatic group, a Eucharistic worship group and does a Latin Mass. The only problem is, he does the Latin mass improperly! He doesn't follow the proper rubrics, just gets up there and plays the hero by doing the Mass in Latin. (As a side note, he installed 4 sanctuary lamps in the chapel, two bracketing a shelf with several relics and two bracketing the tabernacle.)It's sad to see someone who has so little confidence that he must make himself the star of everything, but he's doing a lot of damage with all his flailing.

[47of74]

2. That's a new one

I've never seen that done at Catholic weddings.

[hedgehog]

4. The worst part is that the bride and groom have both had rough lives,

they deserved better on their wedding day.

[SoxFan]

5. What the heck is handfasting?

My cousin and a drinking buddy are priests, and I've never even heard of this.

[hedgehog]

6. Supposedly pagan Celts used to tie the hands of the bridal

couple together as a sign of the marriage. The historical authenticity is debatable, but it is a ceremony used today by some Wiccans. I have nothing against hand fasting as such, but the priest sprang this on the couple without warning and made up a bogus history. I'm pretty easygoing about weddings, as long as whatever happens is meaningful to the bride and groom. For example, if an African American couple wanted to jump the broom at Mass, I'd find that very appropriate as a tribute to their forebears.