Dagupan, Philippines, Jan 9, 2016 / 16:06 pm
The president of the Filipino bishops' conference has explained that couples are unable to write their own wedding vows because in the sacrament of marriage, it is Christ himself who is acting through the husband and wife.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan wrote recently that personal expressions "should not be mixed in with the Church's liturgy because this diminishes, confuses, and spoils the action of Christ himself in the sacrament."
The archbishop made this clarification in response to the increasing practice of couples attempting to write their own vows and to replace those established by the marriage rite.
Archbishop Villegas explained that Catholic couples cannot do this because it would be deleterious to the rite and because they do not have the authority to change the wedding liturgy.