The Deacon's Bench
From Carol Glatz at CNS comes this great heart-tugger of a story:
Even a jailed inmate can have a fairytale, Catholic wedding.
The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, ran a lovely story of one couple’s journey of preparation for the sacrament of marriage.
It’s not your typical scenario: the couple had been together for 27 years, had children and grandchildren, and now, the groom was serving time in a prison in Catania, in southern Italy.
The story is told by the prison chaplain, Father Francesco Ventorino, who, while not identifying the couple, talks about the groom’s spiritual awakening.
The man wanted a Catholic wedding, even if it meant holding the ceremony in jail, because he wanted to “give spousal dignity” to his wife, give their children “the sense of belonging to a true family” and to abide by “his Christian conscience,” the priest said.
“Rarely have I found myself in front of people with so much curiosity and desire to understand the mystery that they were going to celebrate in the faith and what this added to the love they had already lived, faithfully and fruitfully,” Father Ventorino said.
The priest said the inmates were doubtful the church would even allow the couple to have a Catholic wedding, and the townsfolk believed the only people who got married in the church were families who could afford a lavish ceremony.
Both communities — inside and outside the prison walls — were about to see things could be different.
Father Ventorino hit the streets, calling friends and finding ways people could pitch in to help; the groom had no money, the priest said, “not even to buy a tie.”
Read what happened next. And keep a Kleenex handy. It’s that good.
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