Till debt us do part: don’t blame the church

IN your feature article on the move away from church weddings in Ireland (April 2), the impression was given that the churches are cleaning up on marriages and ripping off couples who want to be seen to be doing the ‘right thing’.

The complete opposite is the case. Recent reports showed the least costly item is the church and the officiating clergyman — a figure of €250 was given for this, less than the individual cost of flowers, photographer, video, invitations, limousines, etc.

The first paragraph of your feature seemed to be a plug for alternative weddings — that is, alternative to a Catholic wedding, but in that same paragraph it was stated that, in 2005, there were 15,867 Catholic weddings.

I am surprised no clergyman has written to you to point this out. They know what is making the cost of weddings prohibitive, and it is not the church. The only person I can remember publicly condemning this extravagance was the late, great Bishop Lucey of Cork. It now seems, according to recent news item, that confirmations have become the new weddings.

Eamonn McCarthy

Tara Lawn

Glasheen Road

Cork