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.
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David Mills has been editor of Touchstone and executive editor of First Things. He edits the opinion page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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