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.