Priest Invites All the Couples He Has Married in 47 Years to Special Mass

PITTSBURGH —  A priest perplexed by the divorce rate has invited all the couples he married over the last 47 year to a special Mass today--just to see how they’re doing.

The Rev. Charles Ceradini, 88, invited about 1,000 couples. More than 200 have accepted, he said.

“I’ll congratulate them for holding to the indissolubility of marriage,” he said. “I’ll tell them that it is good that they are still together and still love each other.”

Ceradini was pastor of the Mother of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church from 1940 until his retirement in 1973. He still presides over an occasional wedding, the last in 1987.

The priest said he doesn’t know how many of the couples he married still are together. The nation’s divorce rate puzzles him. “I guess it’s the times,” he said.

(The rate is 20.7 divorces per 1,000 married women over 15, as of 1988, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Those are the latest statistics available.)