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1. I agree with Fr Dillon's point however the churh costs @ $400 to $800+ are another hugely significant reason that couples decide to have weddings in parks etc. This does not mean that they feel God does not have a 'spocial place in their lives or union'. - Maitland

   Posted By: Irene Dicon

2. I am not surprised only 1 in 4 couples are having a church wedding. However, I do not think that is a bad thing. In the past many people got married in churches as they thought it looked better in photos and/or they wanted to appease their parents.
   I would be interested to read the stats on the percentage of people, getting married in churches, who were living together before they got married.
   I would argue that there should be more pre-marriage education and that it should be compulsory.
   People could be required read books such as Why Marriages Succeed or Fail by John Gottman and Good Loving, Great Sex by Dr Rosie King.
   
   

   Posted By: pat hawthorn

3. This article misses the real story. The marriage celebrant business is in a mess. There is a glut of poorly trained celebrants. The Attorney General's Department is just starting to wake up and clean out the shonky training organisations and decommission incompetent celebrants. There is a real fear that a significant number of civil weddings are legally invalid. In the meantime, couples are shopping around for the best price in a hotly contested price war. Add the Green's push for gay marriage to the mix, and times are about to get a whole lot more confusing.

   Posted By: D R Carroll

4. Irene: Where did you get that idea? Catholic churches are not for hire and they “cost” nothing.
   It is traditional for the couple to make a donation (however much they wish to, and that they think is appropriate according to their means) to the priest or deacon who officiates at the wedding, but he will certainly not send them a bill if they fail to do so!
   Pat, why do you think that wanting to obey the Fourth Commandment is a bad thing?
   Perhaps “Both civil celebrants and members of the church are pleased that couples are still wanting to make a life-long commitment to each other”. But the civil celebrants no doubt hope that the commitment is NOT life-long so that they can get repeat business opportunities.
   I went to a wedding in a park conducted by a civil celebrant. It was about as moving and uplifting as watching a public servant announce a change to a minor regulation.
   

   Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

5. The move to civil celebrants is good news for overworked priests and for couples in general who recognise God in the natural environment.
   Hopefully, the number of marriages like this will continue to increase.
   Peter G Thornleigh: You must have been unlucky to strike such a bad situation. Maybe the next one will show how wonderful these civil marriages are.

   Posted By: Laurie Sheehan Coorparoo Brisbane

6. My understanding is that 'Church weddings' only came along some centuries after Jesus and that the Church accepted the civil nature of marriage.

   Posted By: SCB - Brisbane

7. Laurie: Our priests (and deacons) may be overworked but they could easily handle marrying every Catholic who gets married.
   I’m blowed if I can work out what on earth “recognise God in the natural environment” has got to do with it.
   I have been to several weddings by civil celebrants and heard about many more and they were all just as bad. You are the first person I have ever heard describe such a wedding as “wonderful”.
   SCB, your understanding is incorrect. The Church has always required marriages to be entered into only with the involvement and approval of the clergy. In fact, of the bishop, as St Ignatius directed about 100 AD.
   Civil governments had nothing to do with marriages until the 19th century when they first began to register marriages (which had already taken place in the church). Until then civil governments had left the regulation of marriage entirely up to the Church.
   

   Posted By: Peter G, Thornleigh

8. Peter G: Your understanding is faulty. Ignatius says nothing about a marriage ceremony.
   He says nothing about the Church only recognising those marriages officiated at by clergy.
   Joseph Martos in his book Doors to the Sacred writes: When Christians married they did so according to the civil laws of the time, in a traditional family ceremony, and often without any special church blessing on their union... there was no liturgy for marriage as there was for baptism and the eucharist... Late in the fourth century it became customary in some places in the east for a priest or bishop to give his blessing to the newly wedded couple.
   As far as I know Martos has not been made to retract what he wrote.

   Posted By: SCB - Brisbane

9. SCB: St Ignatius of Antioch says (107 AD) Letter to Polycarp, 'But it becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust. Let all things be done to the honour of God.'
   I hope you’re not going to try to claim that a bishop is not or was not “clergy”. Or that the Church “recognized” and approved of any type of lust.
   St Ignatius (a close associate of St John the Apostle) was of course merely following the doctrine expressed by Our Lord and by St Paul that Christian marriage is a true sacrament.
   

   Posted By: Peter G, Thornleigh

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