Wednesday, June 18, 2008
HOW'S THAT AGAIN...?
Wayne Rooney's £5 million wedding to Coleen McLoughlin has no validity in the eyes of the Catholic Church, it has emerged.
The couple, both 22, held a religious ceremony at La Cervara, a converted monastery near Genoa, despite being warned by the local bishop's office against the plan.
The bishop's office told the Rooneys that La Cervara is deconsecrated and not suitable for a wedding. It suggested a different church, five miles away....
Nevertheless, the couple ignored the advice and Father Edward Quinn, their local priest from Croxteth, presided over a ceremony in which rings were exchanged....
Father Mario Ostigoni, the priest in charge of the marriage office, warned: "If the marriage was celebrated at La Cervara, then it is invalid in the eyes of the Church, ipso facto."...
However the couple's spokesman said: "They are definitely married, legally and in the eyes of the church. This was a meticulously planned wedding."
The couple had a civil marriage at Villa Durazzo, a 17th century palace at Santa Margherita Ligure, before the religious ceremony.
Read more.
If the sacrament of marriage is invalid because it wasn't celebrated in a consecrated church, how is it that the sacrament of the Eucharist can be valid even if it is celebrated on the hood of a jeep?
I've never actually understood this. Is marriage the only sacrament that must be celebrated in only certain places, or is ordination also in this category? And if ordinations fall under the same rule, what about ordinations in religiously hostile countries? Must they also be celebrated in consecrated churches?
