The Man of a Single Woman
He wears a two-piece suit and tie, she a long dress and a lace veil over her head, loosely tied under her chin. The twin cantors at the Spanish Mass in the former steel town down the river sing every Sunday, sometimes with a man playing a guitar.
After the homily, the priest calls them up, seemingly to give them a blessing for their work, especially as the organist starts filming, and the priest starts chatting with them. He asks them questions and they answer, and sometimes the congregation, of about 35 people, laughs.
He says “matrimonio,” and then I think he’s giving them a blessing for so many years of marriage, I’d guess twenty-five because they look about fifty. But then he calls the altar boy over, and the boy opens a thin service book and the priest begins reading. At the awkwardly timed 4:00 Sunday Mass, the Spanish-language Mass in this old steel town, with its tiny congregation, two people are giving themselves to each other in marriage.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
David Mills has been editor of Touchstone and executive editor of First Things. He edits the opinion page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on family from the online archives
23.1—January/February 2010
It’s Bent on Bringing Down the House on the Family & the Church by Douglas Farrow
33.2—March/April 2020
Encounters with Faith & Forgiveness in Communities of Faith by Nicole M. King
32.1—January/February 2019
on Down Syndrome & the Lives That Matter by David F. Watson
more from the online archives
26.1—Jan/Feb 2013
on Abortion as a Matter of National Welfare by W. Ross Blackburn
32.4—July/August 2019
Will Islamicization Become Its New Future by Peter Riddell
32.6—November/December 2019
on Taking Heed of the Parallels Between the Crises of Yesterday & Today by Korey D. Maas
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
