The Deacons Bench has a post featuring the wedding requirements at a parish in Cincinnati. The requirements include some of the basics: You have to do a communication inventory and meet with a parish couple 2-3 times. You have to meet with the priest, and the musician and attend a retreat and a class. In addition you have to perform 5 hours of voluntary service at the parish. You must be a registered parishioner and pay $975, or if you are not a parishioner you pay $2000.
As the deacon mentioned in his post, the requirements vary from parish to parish and from Diocese to Diocese, and some people simply give up and do not have a Church wedding. I find some good and bad in the above requirements. The inventory and meeting a parish couple is good and the equivalent of our Pre-Cana program, which I find to be of good value. I think the cost is too high, around here it was $500 when I was married 7 years ago. I also find the voluntary service a bit much, since requiring it for a wedding makes it non-voluntary. The ability to have a Church wedding is an expectation for a Catholic couple, not something they have to 'earn'. I do believe it is important for Catholics to go though preparation for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony but if the Church places too many obstacles in the way, couples will simply not bother. In this post Vatican II Church it is obvious most Catholics are only going through the motions of having a Church wedding, but making the path filled with requirements does not necessarily turn those couples into faithful Christians.
No comments:
Post a Comment