Big Fat Italian Wedding : Pope Francis To Marry 20 Couples

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will marry 20 couples on September 14 at St Peter’s Basilica.

The couples are all from the diocese of Rome, of which the Pope is also bishop.

Francis is not the first Pope to perform a wedding ceremony, but it’s not exactly common. His predecessor, Benedict XVI didn’t preside over any wedding ceremonies.

Pope John Paul II married eight couples in October 2000, to coincide with the celebration of the Jubilee for Families, and led another joint ceremony in 1994.

At a special audience on St Valentine’s Day this year for 10,000 engaged couples, the Pope spoke about the need for Christian marriages built on ‘the rock of love’.

Responding to three questions from couples getting married, the Pontiff said: “Just as God’s love is stable and lasts forever, we want the love on which a family is based to be stable and to last forever. We must not allow ourselves to be conquered by a ‘throwaway culture’.

“This fear of ‘forever’ is cured by entrusting oneself day by day to the Lord Jesus in a life that becomes a daily spiritual path of common growth, step by step. Because ‘forever’ is not simply a question of duration! A marriage does not succeed just because it lasts; its quality is also important. To stay together and to know how to love each other for ever is the challenge Christian married couples face!

(c) Christian Today