More solemn weddings, please?

From Hell's Bible, Pinoy style

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In the words of His Eminence, drop all those ka-ek-ekan (roughly translated frivolities). [Eminence, so it must be a cardinal!  Let' see.]

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle [so it's not a cardinal.  Inquirer reporters are just a bunch of....]  on Saturday urged the faithful to avoid practices that embellish or depart from sacred Catholic rites, like having dogs as wedding ring bearers or wedding planners telling priests what to do and where to stand.  [These wedding coordinators are really either out of this world crazy or just plain arrogant.  I have had more than one brush with these folks.  They range from homosexual men to fat obnoxious women.  They act as if the church or the wedding is their own show.  NO!!!  If the priest is too narcissistic, then you have trouble.  Ha!]

Tagle noted that some Filipino Catholics had been treating the sacraments as if they were merely venues for “social gatherings or cultural traditions,” thus losing the deeper spiritual meaning of these events and rituals.  [Guess someone, a world-class liturgist has been sleeping on the job and spending more time writing books and conducting seminars.   Look at where his expertise has brought us!]

“This is one great challenge for us during this year of faith because our liturgy and sacraments, sad to say, sometimes are no longer considered as celebrations of faith,” Tagle said during the Manila Archdiocesan General Pastoral Assembly held at Paco Catholic School auditorium in Manila.  [No longer celebrations of faith?!?!  Quite ambiguous but I'll take it.  The guys at Megamall might think that since it is a celebration, it calls for dancing and tambourines, right SOBRE?]

Stand-up comedy
“Sometimes, the faith is the last thing we focus on in the sacraments. The sacraments sometimes become mere social events or just cultural traditions with the faith being the last thing we consider,” he added.  [Guess someone, a world-class liturgist has been sleeping on the job and spending more time writing books and conducting seminars.   Look at where his expertise has brought us!  I have my whole blog to spare so I can keep on repeating this line.]

But far from delivering a stern sermon, Tagle spiced up his message with bits of stand-up comedy, drawing laughter from the SRO crowd.

Church dress code
“Once, I received a letter from someone who was getting married and who was asking permission if they could have their dog as their ring bearer,” the prelate recalled. “The dog had been with them for a long time, but what had the dog got to do with our faith? What has become of marriage?"  [Guess the dog will join them in their honeymoon?]

Tagle said he once had to remind a bride about the dress code inside the church, but the bride retorted: “Why does the Church still interfere with that? You are not the one who’s going to pay for my gown.”  [If I were the priest, I would have scolded that arrogant b*&%$ and told her her proper place!  "I am the one officiating the Mass, so it's the Church's rules or you get the hell outta here!]

“But what you are wearing should speak of your faith. The symbols that you use should speak of your faith,” Tagle explained to his audience.  [Well, the inculturated liturgy that came out of the boondocks of Bukidnon speak of our culture and not our Faith!  As far as I can see, the inculturation that we have been thought for the past 30 plus years has led into the trivialization of our liturgy and thus our Faith.  Lex orandi, lex credendi people!]

He also noted that it had become a trend in weddings for church doors to be closed before the bride walks down the aisle. [It started with videographers and wedding coordinators wanting a more dramatic shot!]

“The groom and the escorts had entered but when the bride is about to go in, the doors are closed. There are many weddings like that today. Why close the door? You’ll spend the rest of your married life closing doors,” Tagle said in jest.

“That is no longer faith. That’s a gimmick. Paborloloy, ka-ek-ekan na lang yan (Nothing but embellishments and frivolities). Imagine, closing the door on your bride? Hay naku!” he added.

Best punch line
But Tagle reserved his best punch line for the most modern feature of marital rites: the wedding planner.
“There was this wedding I attended that was already 45 minutes late,” Tagle recalled. “I approached the groom and asked: ‘Why haven’t you started. Is the bride already here?’ Yes. ‘Are the godparents already here?’ Yes. ‘So why haven’t you started?’”

Finally, the wedding planner told him the reason for the delay: The butterflies had not yet arrived. “What butterflies?!” Tagle recalled asking the planner. [I think the wedding planner was properly inculturated.  No, really.  I meant the sarcasm.  HA!]

The answer he got was simple: “Because as the bride walks down the aisle, we will let fly those butterflies.”  “What had those butterflies got to do with our faith? The union is just starting, and you already have all these flying away and separations. Do you know their meaning?” he then said.  [I am pretty sure the wedding planner is in it for the money.  After the wedding would he/she care if the couple are still in marital bliss?]

Who’s the boss?
This prompted the wedding planner to remind him who was really running the show. “ ‘I am the coordinator. You will start when I say so,’” Tagle recalled the planner as telling him pointblank.  [As I said, these are a bunch of @$$*&^$.  No, really.  I have had more than an occasion against these people.  They can be snotty and rude.  They would not even care if the church will be used after the wedding.  Usually, there will be a second wedding coming after theirs or an anticipated Mass especially since most weddings are held every Saturday.]

“So, I stood up and said ‘I am the official witness of the Church here and I am now starting this wedding.’ But the choir wasn’t ready so I started (singing) ‘Tan-tan-tanan. Tan-tan-tanan,’” he added in jest, mimicking the opening notes of the Richard Wagner wedding staple.

“March! Run!” he said. “Probably when the (couple) watch the video of their wedding, they’ll again see what I did.”

Tagle also recalled seeing funerals where the supposedly grieving family installed too many lights. “(It looked like) a Christmas party instead because there were so many Christmas lights.”

***

As I have always blogged, who has contributed into the trivialization of the liturgy, of the sacraments, of how we should worship God?

There was nothing wrong before the 1960s until some boys' club got back from Rome and started saying things are this and that which are actually not!

We have so many seminars and trainings in liturgy classes held in Makati yet what has it brought us?  A priest is even bullied by a wedding planner who we don't know if he/she is Catholic or not in the first place!

We have liturgists in Bukidnon, a PDDM sister who acts as if she is the Bishopress of Inculturation, liturgies that are printed on a weekly basis that are complete violations of liturgical laws (Ex.  The greeting of the priest after the Sign of the Cross.  The Missal only says a few.  The ones we hear every Sunday Mass is not part of it.  It is an altrenative.  But the liturgists want the alternative because it is THEIR WORK.  But I digress.]

We have no one else to blame but the very people who should have worked to keep our liturgy sublime and holy.  People who brandish their degrees and books published but who could not even do anything substantive to address the liturgical abuse in our country.

But hey, what am I complaining.  They are the ones who encourage it.  Duh!

Don't get me wrong.

I am not against happy and memorable weddings.  I love attending them.

But if you overstep what is proper, especially inside a Catholic church, you know what's coming.

Remember, in the past, the CBCP or was it Cardinal Sin who outlawed Catholic weddings not held inside a Catholic church, chapel or oratory, thus banning garden and beach weddings.

Guess someone, a world-class liturgist has been sleeping on the job and spending more time writing books and conducting seminars.   Look at where his expertise has brought us!