CATHOLICS should be encouraged to seek Church weddings over garden weddings or the registrar’s office, as the latter two can cause a domino effect of cutting off from the Church and misery, said Osborne Park parish priest Fr Michael Gatt. A number of letters and emails he’s received from people who married in his church praising the dignity and sanctity they feel their marriage has because of the ceremony has inspired him to produce a poster with photos and quotes from them to display in St Kieran’s.
He hopes it serves as a positive reminder to all who darken the doorway of St Kieran’s Church that marrying in a church is a powerful force for good as it prompts positive life choices from that point on – including baptising their children.
Even if they don’t attend Mass regularly, marrying in a church gives them that call to return to the sacraments for the big occasions like weddings, and it is at these times when the parish community must embrace them so they may become a part of the community – and practising Catholics.
Even the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton “did so much good to the sanctity of marriage all over the world as the people watched the royals kneeling down in the ceremony … it was beautiful for everybody”, Fr Gatt said.
Similarly, the happiness on the faces of the newly wed couples on his poster “speaks more than our words. I was impressed by what they had to say”.
“People don’t think much about religion today, and some Catholics are in two minds about having their marriage in the Church,” Fr Gatt said
“We are there to support and encourage them to tell them what it’s all about. Weddings are sacraments between Christians, so in the Church they have the benefit of the prayers of the family, which is also a reminder not to let the family down.
“Many parents who spent thousands of dollars on Catholic education are broken hearted because their children went to the public registry; they don’t come to church, they don’t baptise their children, and the children are miserable because they drifted from the Church.
“A whole litany of things follow when people don’t get married in the Church. Marriage in a church leads to Baptism, Catholic education and a litany of positive follows. But this chain of goodness is cut because they chose to get married in a garden with a marriage celebrant; by doing it, they cut themselves off from the Church. This upsets their Catholic parents, and it affects the family their whole life. The more we help them to stay in the faith, the better. If they have the wedding in the Church, even if they don’t practise every Sunday but know they are of our congregation, it is helpful.”
“For example, to see the 500 in the street procession for the Italian feast of the Annunziata on 15 May, there were people there you don’t find every Sunday,” yet they made that public expression of faith, he said.
There can even be hidden graces in “mixed marriages” where one spouse is not Catholic. For the non-Catholic spouse to come to Mass to have the blessing in Holy Communion, “this is something that’s great, as he comes to support his wife. That’s something we promote, support and admire, because after all it’s about the gift of faith”.
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