ESCONDIDO — A Catholic wedding is a joyous event, where a couple becomes husband and wife in the sacrament of marriage, surrounded by excited family members and friends.
Now picture that multiplied by 16.
On Aug. 17, St. Mary Catholic Church celebrated a Boda Comunitaria, a wedding Mass where the 16 couples were married. Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido celebrated the Mass, accompanied by Father Scott Herrera and Deacon Amador Durán.
Parishes across the diocese occasionally hold a group wedding. At St. Mary’s, the idea began last December, when Bishop Pulido asked the deacon to prepare couples for a group wedding.
Deacon Durán said that many couples jumped at the chance to be married in the Church.
Mostly in their forties and fifties, they had been living together for years, and many had grown children. Some had been married civilly.
The couples participated in the diocese’s rigorous marriage prep process, including taking the FOCCUS Inventory, meeting privately with the deacon at least five times, taking natural family planning classes, and participating in a retreat on Theology of the Body. The deacon and his assistants worked with the couples, including helping them to obtain all the needed paperwork.
“Our team is committed to supporting couples to live a holy life for themselves and their families,” he said.
The brides wore beautiful wedding dresses, and one wore a traditional dress from Guatemala. They waited in a side room for the ceremony to begin.
María Sánchez was one of them. She had been with her partner, Benjamín Quintero, for 37 years. The couple have three children and three grandchildren.
Why were they getting married by the Church?
“Foremost, to be able to receive God,” she said, adding that she was looking forward to receiving the Eucharist with her children and grandchildren. “It’s beautiful to do it as a family.”
The brides processed into the church one by one, flanked by children and parents. The grooms waited for them near the front, each at the beginning of a pew.
Bishop Pulido celebrated a traditional Mexican ceremony, complete with padrinos, or sponsors, for the anillos (rings), arras (coins), and lazo (lasso). The couples surrounded the altar, one after the other.
“The Catholic Church teaches us that matrimony is a bond that is perpetual and exclusive, an alliance between a man and a woman,” the bishop said in his homily. “It teaches us that God ratifies the couple’s consent. And that matrimony gives the couple a special grace to reach the holiness needed to overcome the challenges of living together and to responsibly educate and embrace their children.”
