That way, just like the other sacraments, whether a marriage was legitimate or not would rest entirely in the hands of the church. But alas, for the church this was deemed impossible to enforce. It rightly recognized that people would continue to marry without the blessing of a priest, much like they had, well, for thousands of years before the church ever came along. This would have entailed the church deeming void from the outset far too many working marriages for any reasonable person to take its pronouncements on the institution seriously.<\/p>\n
The upshot of all this is that the celebration of marriage is still the only sacrament that is enacted by the couple and only presided over \u201d\u201c merely witnessed \u201d\u201c by a priest. I like reminding myself this when I’m doing weddings: I’m just an accessory. The power is in their hands. And it was nice to remember as I was getting married, too. All this may sound slightly odd coming from a Christian priest who represents the institutional church and routinely performs marriages. But that only made such small consolations that much more important. A public apology tacked onto the liturgy may still be worthwhile for some, but, thankfully, I found something of the same thing \u201d\u201c written right into its history.<\/p>\n