Lost Opportunity

So I was chatting with a casual friend, and we got on the subject of hypocrisy. Then she tells me that a mutual acquaintence, Miss T. is about to get married to Mr. C. Mr. C is Catholic and Miss T is Lutheran, and Mr. C. was seeking the Bishop's approval to marry in Miss T's family church. The priest asked Mr. C for his reasons, then said he'd like to discuss it with Miss T as well. When Miss T called the priest back, he asked a bunch of questions like, "Would your family be angry with you if you married in the Catholic Church?" and such. Miss T said, no, her family is very supportive, and it would be all right, but she'd really like to get married in the church her sister, mother, and grandmother were all married in. Then -- according to my casual friend -- the priest said, "Well, Miss T, I've already written a letter to the Bishop stating that your family would object to a Catholic wedding, so we'll have to go with that." Miss T was indignant -- how could he lie to the Bishop?!?!?

"Isn't that terrible?" my casual friend bemoaned. "A priest lying to his Bishop!" As I nodded, she said something along the lines of how the Catholic Church has too many stupid rules, "like the one about birth control that everybody ignores anyway."

A bit taken aback, I stammered, "Well...not everybody." But I felt completely powerless to state the Church's case on any topic at that point, becuase as far as my casual friend knows, priest make it a habit of lying to the Bishop.

Now, I have to say, I have no way of knowing how accurate this tale is. Maybe Miss T misunderstood. Maybe she didn't. Maybe the priest is morally lazy. I don't know what parish this is or even what Diocese. What can I do? Pretty much nothing.

But the real stinger is the lost opportunity to explain why marriage and marital love is different in the Catholic Church.

Phooey.

--Sparki