Church offers free weddings, veils, rings, cords but please return after rites

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Get hitched in church. Even the wedding ring is free.

With half of Filipinos shunning church weddings, the Catholic Church is offering free wedding ceremonies—with free wedding rings, veils and cords to boot.

But no bathing suits, please, a Catholic prelate said.

Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz on Tuesday rebutted the claim of party-list group Gabriela—which is pushing for divorce—that Filipinos were shunning church weddings because they cost more than P100,000 to hold.

“That P100,000 is an atrocious and big lie. The price depends on what you have during the wedding—if you have a band, choir, flowers, air conditioning, or reception in a hotel,” said Cruz, one of the country’s foremost canon lawyers.

“In the Church, you can have weddings for free. Once or twice a month we have that. That’s the norm,” said Cruz, who also heads the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal, a Church office that handles cases of annulment of Catholic marriages.

Decent outfit

Cruz also made the statement after the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) last week released survey results showing that half of Filipinos were shunning church weddings.

According to Cruz, couples who intend to marry in Church for free could approach their parish to have their marriages scheduled on days when it holds free weddings.

Couples also need not worry about their outfit at the wedding for as long as it is decent, he added.

No need to wear white

“You don’t have to wear white if you want the free wedding. Just don’t come in swimming suits, and it’s OK,” Cruz said.

“The veil, cord and ring can be provided by the Church. But of course, these must be returned afterward,” he added.

Cruz said he ordered Msgr. Joselito Asis, CBCP secretary general, to determine the average cost of church weddings in the country.

“I told him to come here and explain the results to you (media) because that P100,000 is a lie. You only have that if you have a grand wedding,” Cruz said.

Globalization to blame

Nevertheless, Cruz admitted that the shunning of church weddings by a growing number of Filipinos was becoming a “big problem” for the Church, particularly in urban centers. He blamed it on globalization.

“Globalization is not only a question of economic factors but of values systems as well. We are importing television programs, movies where people (are shown getting) married but then they separate,” Cruz said. “So if there is that, why get married at all? It’s pointless.”

To fight the influence of these “permissive values,” Cruz said the Church should strengthen its catechesis on marriage and the counseling that couples receive before and after they wed.

Children are first victims

Cruz said the decision of many couples in urban areas to shun Church weddings was part of the “desertification of faith” that Pope Benedict XVI had warned about.

“This is what the Holy Father calls the desertification of faith … people slowly losing their faith in God. And the first victims are the children,” Cruz said.

“These children will also be the last ones to marry, having seen what their parents went through. They won’t be very enthusiastic.”

Originally posted: 5:22 pm | Tuesday, October 16th, 2012