So we get them to come to the Church on Sunday by Celebrating a major sacrament away from the Church on their wedding day. I’m thinking if peopel don’t even want to walk into a church on their wedding day why would they want to any other day. I could be wrong, but it does seem odd.From a very practical point of view this sounds like a good thing.
According to statistics from CARA, the number of church marriages in the US has fallen off dramatically in recent years:
Marriages in previous year
1990: 326,079
1995: 294,144
2000: 261,626
2005: 207,112
2010: 168,400
2015: 148,134
Perhaps people don’t feel tied to the Church the way they once did, perhaps there’s an increase in mixed marriages, perhaps people simply want to do things their own way, but a halving of marriages in a 25-year span is noteworthy.
Perhaps giving couples the option of an outdoor wedding will keep some of these people “in the fold,” so to speak. They won’t be starting their married lives by turning their backs on the Church and entering into an invalid marriage. Maybe that will make it easier for them to return to the practice of their faith once children come along and the Church becomes more important in their lives.
So, no need to show up at church on Sundays at all? Just go to the great outdoors and commune with God. (Minus, of course, the Eucharist.)Except Christ is present when them if they’re gathered in his name as they would be in a Catholic wedding, even performed outside. Matthew 18:20 assures us of that.
You just answered your own question as to why you would still need/want to go to mass on Sundays in parenthesis (beyond your Catholic obligation to do so). And I’d presume that having a Catholic wedding outdoors doesn’t preclude it from being a full mass with Eucharist, no?So, no need to show up at church on Sundays at all? Just go to the great outdoors and commune with God. (Minus, of course, the Eucharist.)
Actually, I was under the impression that while the marriage ceremony could be held outdoors, the Mass could not. Maybe the new permission allows for Mass outdoors as well, but that would be a distinct matter from the marriage.You just answered your own question as to why you would still need/want to go to mass on Sundays in parenthesis (beyond your Catholic obligation to do so). And I’d presume that having a Catholic wedding outdoors doesn’t preclude it from being a full mass with Eucharist, no?
Going back to your earlier comment, God is in both places, true, but not in the same way. [See sections 35-39 of *Mysterium Fidei (the section entitled “Various Ways in Which Christ is Present”.] w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_03091965_mysterium.htmlYou just answered your own question as to why you would still need/want to go to mass on Sundays in parenthesis (beyond your Catholic obligation to do so). And I’d presume that having a Catholic wedding outdoors doesn’t preclude it from being a full mass with Eucharist, no?
I think your forgetting the Eucharist, the body, blood, soul & divinity of Christ, there inside the Church, inside the tabernacle. Unless they take Him outside also to witness the marriage, then I would take the Church.It’s not the building that makes a church. It’s Christ and those in communion with him that comprises the church. In the early church, there were no buildings. People worshipped in homes, outdoors, or wherever a place was found. The ancient Jews placed great importance on “The Temple”. It was destroyed. Buildings crumble. Faith in God endures. Too many Catholics are attached to the material, the physical. Don’t misunderstand me, churches are wonderful. I love a beautiful church, but God makes a marriage valid, not the location of the ceremony.