Tea at Trianon: Guidelines for Catholic Wedding Guests

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, January 14, 2022

Guidelines for Catholic Wedding Guests

From Simply Catholic:

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is, “May I attend the wedding?” And the answer is, “Yes, if it’s a real marriage.” In the wake of the breakdown of marriage and family life in the United States since the advent of the pill and no-fault divorce over 40 years ago, many Catholics today face bewildering choices when they are invited to weddings. On the one hand, they want to show their support for family and friends, but on the other they want to be faithful to Christ and His teachings on marriage. Sometimes, the two seem to come in conflict and difficult choices must be made. However, if we are faithful to Christ, this will always benefit our loved ones. We are called to “love the sinner, but hate the sin.”

Jesus blessed marriage with His presence at the wedding feast at Cana, but He also spoke very clearly about the inviolable properties of unity and indissolubility of marriage when He said: “And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery” (Mt 19:9, RSV). May I attend the wedding? Yes, if it’s a real marriage. You may attend, but you are never obliged to attend. (Read more.)