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Leonel and Eliza Hernandez were among four couples who wed sacramentally during a special Mass at St. Bruno Church on Aug. 4. (Photo by Nicholas Wolfram Smith/Catholic San Francisco)
August 9, 2018
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
A busy parish might see three weddings on a single Saturday. On a windy Saturday afternoon at St. Bruno Church in San Bruno, four couples were married during a single Mass.
The newlyweds – Tupetaki and Malia Leger, Islander and Rosa Medrano, Leonel and Eliza Hernandez and Bernardo and Juanita Magana – were all wed through a ministry at St. Bruno that encourages civilly wed or cohabitating couples to receive the sacrament of marriage.
Bernardo Magana told Catholic San Francisco he and his wife had been married civilly for six years but had always put off a church wedding. The two did not have many friends or family when they moved to the area, he said, and the expense and time did not seem worth it.
After they moved to San Bruno, his wife Juanita became more interested in getting in touch with the church, and began talking to Father Michael Brillantes, the pastor of St. Bruno. When they found out about the “mass wedding” the parish offered, they decided it was a good fit for their situation.
The experience was “very positive,” Magana said. While the two were already very committed to each other, the marriage was important for bringing them closer to God.
And the involvement of the parish community, along with the friends and family of the other couples, was important as well.
“We would never have had that many people there to celebrate with us, so it was nice to see the community there,” he said.
Father Brillantes told Catholic San Francisco the parish had celebrated group weddings several times before. Through religious education classes, announcements after Mass and word of mouth, the parish reached out to couples in stable relationships who have been civilly married or have cohabitated for at least five years and invited them to celebrate the sacrament of matrimony in the church.
Father Brillantes said that the couples they invite “are not strangers to us – they’re part of our parish family.”
The couples he has prepared for group weddings over the years had delayed getting a sacramental marriage for several reasons, he said. Often couples do not recognize the importance of a sacramental marriage or feel they do not have enough time to commit to a church wedding. Especially if they have immigrated to the United States, they are not always able to produce the documents the church requires before marriage. Cost can be another factor, he said. While St. Bruno typically charges $500 to cover the costs associated with a church wedding, the group wedding is free.
The marriage ministry at St. Bruno to stable couples without sacramental marriages takes on additional importance in light of the national decline in Catholic weddings. Marriages within the church have declined more than 60 percent since the ‘70s. Only 29 percent of Catholics held a church wedding in 2016.
Pope Francis has taught often on the importance of marriage and the family, writing in “Amoris Laetitia” that couples are a “living reflection” of the Trinity, and provide “an image for understanding and describing the mystery of God.”
Magana said he was grateful for the wedding, and that it had brought him and his wife closer to God. “I wish more churches would do this,” he said.
Mass attendance could also increase, Magana said, if more couples were brought in who were staying away because of concern about how God saw their lives. “There are a lot of couples in our situation, who don’t want a big celebration, but want to get certified by the church,” he said.
Tupetaki and Malia Leger were among four couples who wed sacramentally during a special Mass at St. Bruno Church on Aug. 4. (Photo by Nicholas Wolfram Smith/Catholic San Francisco)