Posted on 07/29/2014 6:22:34 AM PDT by marshmallow
According to new data, Catholic marriages in the U.S. are on a steep decline. Why are fewer couples relying on religious institutions as they take their vows?
Its an iconic image: the white dress, the church bells, the priest, the traditional vows repeated by an earnest, fresh-faced couple. Many elements of the archetypical American wedding echo the formality and traditions of the countrys largest single religious tradition, Roman Catholicism. But Catholic weddings themselves are becoming rarer and rarer.
In 1970, there were roughly 426,000 Catholic weddings, accounting for 20 percent of all marriages in the United States that year. Beginning in 1970, however, Catholic marriages went into decades of steady decline, until the turn of the new centurywhen that decline started to become precipitous: Between 2000 and 2012, Church weddings dropped by 40 percent, according to new data from the Official Catholic Directory. Given other demographic trends in the denomination, this pattern is question-raising: As of 2012, there were an estimated 76.7 million Catholics in the United States, a number that has been growing for at least four decades.
According to Catholic doctrine, marriage is a sacrament, or holy rite of passage, that can only be received if both husband and wife are baptized in the Church. In many cases, bishops can grant a special dispensation for interfaith couples, which allows them to be married in a church by a priest. But for faithful Catholics who want their marriage to be fully recognized by the Church, the options are either marrying a good Catholic girl or boy, or convincing their partner to convert.
If there are so many American Catholics, why aren't they getting married?
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
My parish was not the prettiest in the area, but it was home. I never thought about getting married else where. My sister wanted me to get married at her parish. But they were booked up. I was secretly glad. I left that parish because they were losey goosey and there was this Unitarian sister there. She thought she was Catholic. Took ten long years to get rid of her.
I lived an equal distance to either parish. The one I went to was built, because the other one got to big. So I did not break any rules about parishes.
Not surprised at the high costs of weddings at the churches. With so many churches struggling in the financial area, costs will go up when it comes to special ceromonies.
Faith of Our Fathers ping
If counted as a separate denomination, the #2 denomination would be ex-Catholics.
That is literally true. One tenth of the population of the USA as a whole, is ex-Catholics.
How is it they “could not” have a Mass? My husband was a baptized Baptist and we had a nuptial Mass. I don’t remember it being an issue at all. We even had my husband’s Baptist pastor brother-in-law do the First Reading.
Same thing with my father's funeral. There was no question of money. Again, I made a token offering to the pastor and additionally gave the organist/choir director $25 and she was actually shocked that I had made an offer of money.
Maybe the regulations have changed. My son and now daughter-in-law were told that since she was not Catholic they could have a ceremony but not a Mass.
Whatever it is it worked out for all of us involved. My daughter-in-law wanted to have a Mass and did what she needed to do to get it.
Ping!
Good for her! Blessings all around!
I think that was a slam on your grammar.
same.
I was older, I though God told me marry this man
Now looking back maybe I was deluded....I don’t know
it goes into the pastor’s slush fund
She helped get me back into the Church.
Same here. The priest that married us refused to accept a cent. So I made a chalice and paten for him.
I tried to pay him, he said no. But we made a donation to one of the funds at the parish in his name.
yep, that used to be the norm.
now they charge as much (or more) for the church as they do they reception venue. So many couples simply opt to do the ceromony at the reception venue or elsewhere to save money.
Any extras (essentially, rental and decoration of the site, services of choir, etc.) are extras. My own parents were married by the priest in the rectory (of course this is years ago) at no cost.
Even the priest's stipend can be waived. But it's as reasonable to pay the officiant for his time as it is to pay a caterer or a florist.
You know, it's all semantics. The fact is Catholic churches in Philadelphia have been charging for the sacrament of matrimony for at least two decades. Is the charge for the use of the church or the priest's time or a combination of both those things? Is it an actual fee or is it a donation? In the words of Hillary Clinton: What difference does it make? If you can't be sacramentally married without forking over some money to your parish, then there's a fee for the sacrament.
Can the cost be waived? Absolutely! But the truth is most young people in Philadelphia who are hardpressed to come up wtih $500 unfortunately aren't considering a sacramental marriage in the first place. As I said in a previous post, having a Catholic wedding a) locally and b) announced six months in advance raises the price of the reception. We have to hope and pray the couples who avoid sacramental weddings because of the associated costs will ultimately return to the Church and have their marriages blessed. I've seen it happen several times so there is hope.
Come to think of it, there’s a charge for First Communions too. My daughter was in the hospital so I brought one of my grandchildren to the first Communion practice (at a parish other than my own) and when we signed in I was told we hadn’t yet paid the fee. A lot of folks hadn’t paid yet and they made a point of saying if it was a hardship to see the DRE. I’m sure it was a hardship for some folks - the fee was a $100!
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