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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

What’s wrong with having a unity candle at a nuptial Mass?

Catholic Answers Staff

Question:

A Catholic woman I know is marrying a Protestant in a nuptial liturgy outside of Mass. The groom wants a unity candle out of respect for his religious tradition, but the priest won’t allow it. Why would the priest refuse this?

Answer:

The “unity candle” is not a required element of the Catholic nuptial liturgy, either within Mass or outside of it. The unity candle is a wedding-industry fad of recent decades that has been incorporated into many Christian weddings, Catholic and non-Catholic. Although this groom may have seen this custom performed in weddings at his church, the unity candle is not required in Protestant weddings.
The priest is within his authority to disallow the custom at weddings he witnesses. The couple should understand that it is the sacrament of matrimony that signifies their marital unity, and in fact accomplishes what it signifies. If they like, they can light a unity candle at their wedding reception.

 

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