Hi,
No one ever asks why an ordination Mass can’t be celebrated outside in a park or at the beach. Yet an ordination Mass is always celebrated in a church or cathedral for the same reason that a Catholic wedding is celebrated in a church. They are both singular sacred events in the lives of those for whom they are celebrated.
We don’t look to Hollywood or Madison Avenue for pointers on how to celebrate the sacred. The Church alone has the appropriate role in this. A church exists for the sole purpose of worship–the public acknowledging of God to be who He is. Wedding vows constitute a sacrament in the Catholic Church. For others it is only a public exchange of promises. For Catholics marriage constitutes an ongoing sign of the marriage between Jesus and His Church. That a Catholic wedding between two Catholics must take place in a Catholic Church expresses how seriously and sacred it regards marriage–plane and simple.
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
