Los Angeles, CA–Last weekend my wife and I attended a Quinceanera for our next door neighbor at the San Fernando Mission (pictured) in Los Angeles. Both the religious ceremony and the banquet afterwards were done very traditionally, all in Spanish, with folk dancing from Mexico, where the mother is from, and from Argentina, the father’s country of origin.
One thing stood out for me — during the religious ceremony, the priest made it a point to tell Vicky, the Quinceanera, how lucky she was to have an intact family. He explained how important this is, as it provides a good example for the children.
It has been a while since I attended a Catholic religious ceremony (I taught at a Catholic high school many, many years ago), and I do not know how often priests voice such sentiments. But it seemed significant to me, and it seems that increasingly the religious community is starting to take the problem of divorce and family breakdown a little more seriously. I made a point to go up to the priest afterwards and thank him for his comments.
On a different note, both my son and my daughter took part in the ceremony, and my son wore a tuxedo for the first time. My wife and I could not get over how mature, composed and adult he looked, particularly when he was dancing with some of the young ladies. It was very nice to see him like that, but also a tiny bit sad — they grow up so fast…