Croatian priests may ban Irish weddings
Senior clerics in the historic Croatian town of Dubrovnik are fed up with poorly prepared wedding couples and their scantily clad female guests taking over their churches and placing unreasonable demands on their priests.
They have now asked Irish bishops to discourage such parties and threatened not to cater to couples who do not bring their own Irish priest with them to perform the wedding ceremony.
In a letter to the Irish Bishops Conference, reproduced in this week’s issue of The Irish Catholic, Monsignor Ivan Simic complains that wedding tourists often fail to get their papers in order, demand priests at short notice and fail to go to confession, yet still receive Communion, and dress inappropriately.
A spokesman for the Irish Bishops Conference said they empathised with the position of the Catholic Church in Dubrovnik. He said couples intending to marry abroad were encouraged to contact the Catholic marriage agency Accord or consult www.gettingmarried.ie before making travel arrangements.
