The wedding march

The wedding march

Amy Welborn opened a can of worms today. In this post she blogged about a new policy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that says that wedding customs that have been allowed in the past but violate the rubrics, such as the bride walking down the aisle with her father, must be discontinued. I was surprised at the reaction in the combox. There were quite a few self-proclaimed orthodox Catholics, who said they normally abhor any liturgical funny business, but just couldn’t abide by this policy. So we obey only the liturgical rules we agree with now?

Amy responded in another post with her opinion on the wedding (and funeral)-related comments, and then linked to a post by Fr. Rob Johansen who explained what the General Instruction of the Roman Missal says and why it says it.

Melanie and I both have an opinion on this one since we’re getting married in August. Not only will we be obedient to the Church’s rules because they are the Church’s rules whether we agree or not, but we also agree with why the Church does it. For one thing, the dad giving away the bride is another one of those things “we all know” about weddings that really come from what we’ve seen on TV and in movies, just like those wedding vows everyone thinks they’re going to say, but have to be told are really Episcopalian.

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