MANILA - The head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has clarified that Catholic couples cannot write their own wedding vows.
CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the rite of marriage does not provide an option for couples to publicly express their love in their own words.
"Mixing personal pious devotions with the liturgy could confuse, remove or diminish the focus of the action of Christ Himself in the liturgical action. The liturgy is not ours to change at whim,” Archbishop Villegas said in a CBCP report.
The archbishop said the regulation of the "sacred liturgy" depends solely on the Vatican and in limited cases, to the bishops’ conferences.
"Hence, no other person, not even a priest may add, remove or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority," he said, citing a provision from Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
"Based on these norms, the idea of pronouncing personal vows inserted within the wedding liturgy must not be allowed," he added.
Villegas said one option for couples who want to publicly express their love in their own words would be to read it at the wedding reception.
"Let us not compromise the sacred character of the wedding rites on the altar of romanticism," he said. Report by CBCPNews
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