Married or not?

CERTAIN elements of the media recently informed us that after a visit to a registry office, two young celebrities were ‘man and wife,’ had ‘tied the knot,’ and so on, meaning they were married.

The fact is that the state has no power to unite a man and woman in marriage. All the state can do is register births, marriages and deaths; the actual birth, marriage or death is a matter for God alone. Media sensationalism gave the impression that the couple in question were already married in a registry office before the Catholic church marriage in France. They were not.

Frank O’Meara,