Wedding rites outside of church banned

MANILA Archbishop Cardinal Gaudencio B. Rosales has banned the holding of wedding rites outside the church.

Rosales issued the ban to prevent the sacrament of marriage from being ridiculed and press the observance of “all ecclesiastical laws.”

“I have to ensure that abuses do not creep into ecclesiastical discipline, especially concerning the celebration of the sacrament of marriage,” he said in a recent circular to his clergy.

But the head of the Manila’s Roman Catholic Church exempted those “in periculo mortis” cases or a marriage that is performed when either the groom or bride is in danger of death.

Canon law does require that weddings take place within a church building but each bishop may particularize the policy in his diocese.

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