POPE OFFICIATES AT WEDDING

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 December 1934, Page 2

POPE OFFICIATES AT WEDDING

ROYALTY AND STATE. VATICAN CITY STATE, Oct. 16. The austere hall of the Consistory was gay with flowers and crowded with women in scintillating jewels this morning when Pope Pius XI, married Count Franco Ratti, his nephew, and Signorina Angela Crespi, a member of a well-known Milanese family. The hall had been transformed into a temporary chapel, and the Pope performed the ceremony from beginning to end. Afterwards he gave a reception and a luncheon party in the famous Borgia. Rooms, but he was not present in person, for an umyritten law forbids the Pontiff from sitting at table with another hunian being, even though it be a member of his own family. Royalty, the State and the Church, all helped in the marriage, a fact to which his Holiness referred when he spoke to the young couple after the ceremony. King Victor Emannuel of Italy was represented by the Duke of Bergamot, his cousin, who acted as witness for the bridegroom. Signor Federzoni, President of the Italian Senate, was a witness foi’ the bride. This is the second time Pope Pius XI, has officiated at the sacrament of marriage since his election to the Pontificate in 1922. On the first occasion he married one of his nieces to the Marchesa Parsichetti.