The Catholic Church cannot and should not attempt to compete with a spirituality which is essentially whatever a couple wants it to b
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In 1994, just over nine out of ten marriages were celebrated in Catholic Churches. In 2023, 35 per cent of wedding ceremonies were Catholic and 32 per cent were civil ceremonies, according to While secular bodies such as humanists have to meet certain criteria, such as having more than 50 members and having been in existence for at least five years, religious bodies, defined as “an organised group of people, members of which meet regularly for common religious worship”, have no such restrictions.
The Spiritualist Union of Ireland is the largest single provider of opposite-sex wedding ceremonies after the Catholic Church – that is 1,674 or 7.9 per cent of all marriages. Spiritualists promote communication with the dead among other things, and used to offer to have dead relatives present at the ceremony, although that aspect is now downplayed.
However, the churches cannot and should not attempt to compete with a spirituality which is essentially whatever a couple wants it to be.
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