Richie John Pais
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, May 1: The 41st community celebration of weddings, popularly known as Rosario mass wedding, will take place at Rosario Cathedral Mangaluru on Sunday May 3.

Fourteen couples from different places of Mangaluru diocese as well as outside will participate in the mass wedding ceremony this year. Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, the bishop of Mangaluru will solemnise the weddings.

File Photos

‘Rosario mass wedding’ is a joint venture of St Vincent De Paul Society (SVP), a worldwide service organization of Catholic laypeople and the Rosario Cathedral, the oldest parish in the land.

History of mass wedding

The proposal to organize the mass wedding was first made to the St Vincent De Paul Society in a meeting in December 1975 by Fr Denis Castelino, the then assistant priest of Rosario Cathedral.

For the then parish priest of Rosario Cathedral Fr Fred V Pereira, it was not an ordinary proposal. He called a meeting of the priests and lay representatives of city parishes, legislators, municipal councillors, office bearers of Catholic associations and others including the media under the leadership of the bishop of Mangalore, Dr Basil S D’Souza, in order to consider the proposal of the community celebration of weddings at the Cathedral. The proposal was unanimously approved in the meeting. It did not take much time for the organizers to hold the first ever community wedding. In fact in less than five months the dream of Fr Denis Castelino was realized.

                  Fr Fred V Pereira                      Fr Denis Castelino            

The first mass wedding in 1976

Twenty four couples hailing from 29 parishes of then undevided Mangalore diocese took marriage oaths in the presence of Dr Basil S D’Souza at Rosario Cathedral on Sunday May 16 1976, at 10 am during the nuptial mass. There was no looking back after that.

The people who attended the first mass wedding remember the message delivered by the Bishop. He had stressed the liturgical aspect and meaning of community celebration of weddings like it was seen in the communitarian celebration of other sacraments like Eucharist, confirmation, ordination and penance. "If we get together all categories of people, rich and poor, the educated and the uneducated, and celebrate our liturgical and social functions in a communitarian way, we will be able to give religious significance to them and derive lot of spiritual fruit," the bishop had said.

Social change

After 4 decades since that sermon by the bishop, SVP Rosario unit can proudly say that they have managed to bring social change at least in few families. As many as 640 couples have got married at the mass wedding so far.

The two fold purpose of the mass wedding is to promote equality among the Christians without any discrimination on the basis of class and to introduce discipline in weddings without any room for unnecessary expenses. It should be remembered that weddings brought miseries to the poor families who borrowed for the one time in life event. The social problem still remains the same even with advancement in technology and all spheres of life.

Fr J B Crasta

C J Simon, the president of SVP tells us that “Even in ordinary weddings lacs of rupees are spent. But we spend only around Rs 30,000 on every couple. We provide non vegetarian dinner for 60 guests per couple. We also give Rs 5,000 fixed deposits to each couple, provide them with cloths and look after their travelling expenses when the couple come from distant places.”

On the support of other organizations and people, Mary J Pinto, the secretary of SVP says “We get good support from St Vincent De Paul from other parishes. Our parish priests and parishioners over the years have also supported us well. But we are still dependant on donations from donors. We thank all the donors who have helped us in our mission.”

Fr J B Crasta, the parish priest of Rosario Cathedral and spiritual director of SVP Rosario unit says “I am happy about the changes St Vincent De Paul has brought in the lives of so many people. I am also happy about the preparation they do for the weddings, which is a tradition now. St Vincent De Paul puts smiles on the faces of the couples and their families every year. My only wish is, more and more people should volunteer to get married in mass wedding. ”

Vincent De Paul Rosario unit has 16 members. The number is small because only the people with strong and proven social concern are inducted as members. Their main mission is serving the poor and downtrodden. It is a perpetual mission for them. They do not seek publicity. Thousands of people have benefitted from them in various ways.

It is learned that to get support from the government for the mass wedding has not been easy due to several bottlenecks and cumbersome procedures.

Since mass wedding is an every year event, one can donate to St Vincent De Paul any time of the year.