Papa Francis afungisha ndoa 'wazoefu'

A groom exchanges rings with his bride during their wedding mass officiated by Pope Francis in St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, on Sept 14, 2014. 

- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/pope-francis-marries-couples-who-have-cohabited-had-children-20140914#sthash.UzJCVKlG.dpuf

One of the 20 couples who were married by Pope Francis on Sept. 14, 2014 pose for a picture during the ceremony.

"The people getting married on Sunday are couples like many others," the diocese of Rome said in a statement. "Some already live together, some already have children." - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/pope-francis-marries-couples-who-have-cohabited-had-children-20140914#sthash.UzJCVKlG.dpuf

"The people getting married on Sunday are couples like many others," the diocese of Rome said in a statement. "Some already live together, some already have children." - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/pope-francis-marries-couples-who-have-cohabited-had-children-20140914#sthash.UzJCVKlG.dpuf

 

 Pope Francis officiates a Mass at the wedding of 20 couples in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, September 14, 2014.

A couple newly married by Pope Francis receives communion in St. Peter's Basilica on Sept. 14, 2014.

VATICAN CITY

Forty “I do’s” — or “Si” in Italian — were pronounced in St. 

Peter’s Basilica Sunday as Pope Francis married 20 couples, with one bride already a mother.

Francis in his homily likened families to the “bricks that build society.”

Among the couples, all from the Rome area, is one in which the groom’s first marriage was annulled by the church and the bride has a daughter from an earlier relationship. 

Some of the other couples already were living together.

The Vatican views sex outside marriage as sin, but Francis stresses the church should be a forgiving one.

He said marriage was “real life, not some TV show.” He told the couples love of Jesus can help whenever their love “becomes lost, wounded or worn out.”

A groom exchanges rings with his bride during their wedding mass officiated by Pope Francis in St Peter's Basilica. 

Pope Francis married 20 couples today, some of whom had already lived together and had children, in the latest sign that the Argentine pontiff wants the Catholic church to be more open and inclusive.

In the first wedding he has performed since becoming the head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics 18 months ago, Francis took each couple through their vows in turn. 

Many already had children and thought such a marriage would be impossible, according to the Vatican's radio station.

A groom exchanges rings with his bride during their wedding mass officiated by Pope Francis in St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, on Sept 14, 2014. 

- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/pope-francis-marries-couples-who-have-cohabited-had-children-20140914#sthash.UzJCVKlG.dpuf

"The people getting married on Sunday are couples like many others," the diocese of Rome said. "Some already live together, some already have children."

The ceremony was the first of its kind in the Vatican since Pope John Paul II presided over a wedding in 2000.

Pope Francis has said the church must end its obsession with teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality, and become more merciful, or risk collapsing "like a house of cards".
 
 “The love of Christ, which has blessed and sanctified the union of husband and wife,” the Pope said in his homily, “is able to sustain their love and to renew it when, humanly speaking, it becomes lost, wounded or worn out. The love of Christ can restore to spouses the joy of journeying together.”

Marriage, he continued, is about  “man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman, and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband to become ever more a man.
 
“Here we see the reciprocity of differences,” he said.

The path is not always smooth for married couples, the Pope continued, nor is it “free of disagreements.” If it were, “it would not be human.” Rather, “it is a demanding journey, at times difficult, and at times turbulent, but such is life!”