The subtitle has the word "renewed" in it - I'm going to put it in quotes since they aren't being "renewed" in the the Church but occurring for the first time!
Bridgeport church holds New Year's Eve weddings for 12 married couples
Nativity of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church is site of 'renewed' vows
By Manya A. Brachear | Tribune reporter
January 1, 2009
While many people spent New Year's Eve popping the cork, popping the question and mulling resolutions for 2009, a dozen sets of husbands and wives approached the altar at a Catholic church in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood to exchange vows and tie the knot—again.
Married in civil ceremonies—some more than a quarter-century ago—the couples wanted to kick off 2009 united in God's eyes at the ceremony in Nativity of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church.
"We're doing it because we know we're going to be together forever," said Dawn Romero, 39, a parishioner at nearby St. Mary of Perpetual Help, who donned a black velvet ensemble with silver sequins Wednesday night.
She wore a pink dress the day she married Luis Romero at City Hall 19 years ago. The couple now has two daughters.
"We want to show the girls that if we think church is important to them, it's important to us too," Romero said.
Rev. Dan Brandt, pastor at Nativity of Our Lord, based the idea for a New Year's Eve wedding mass on a similar celebration this past summer.
So many parishioners had sought Brandt's blessing over the years that the hopeless romantic planned a special New Year's celebration, which he advertised in the church bulletin and neighborhood newspaper. Calls came flooding in from his own parish and others.
"It's a more romantic opportunity for some folks. It's like Valentine's Day," Brandt said. "For some people, church and practice of their faith wasn't all that important at that point in their life. They've come around. They've grown up spiritually or come back to the church for some reason and feel they want to have their marriage validated."
Brandt said Catholic couples return to the altar for a variety of reasons. Some tie the knot in Las Vegas or city hall without any clergy present. Some have divorced and postponed annulments, precluding more Catholic nuptials.
To prepare, each couple went through an abridged version of the church's traditional seminar for newlyweds.
"You can't walk into a Catholic Church if you want to get married tomorrow because we see marriage as a covenant rather than just a legal contract," Brandt said. "It takes a little bit of preparation. They could probably teach classes on living together as husband and wife. But our seminar addressed the contract with God into which you are entering."
During the mass, 12 couples exchanged vows in what is known as the sacrament of matrimony. They also read from the Book of Tobit and St. Paul's Letter to Colossians, passages often recited at weddings.
Gianna and William Hronopoulos married nearly five years ago at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
Though the groom is Greek Orthodox, the bride was raised Catholic and believes it's important to bless the marriage in the church before their first baby is born in August.
"I figured it was the right thing to do it in the eyes of God," she said.
When Carolyn and Dan Edwards married 25 years ago, religion was the last thing on their minds.
"I just remember being so uncertain about what was going to happen," said Dan Edwards, 47. "We really had a rough go of it in the beginning. . . . That made the marriage much stronger."
Now they finish each other's sentences. And instead of exchanging wedding bands Wednesday, the couple had Celtic bands tattooed on their left ring fingers.
"We're learning even more up to this day by going back and getting involved in the church," he said. "I'm sure we'll learn more in the next 25 years."
