Yesterday, Deputy PM Chris Fearne’s son Julian married Claire Borg at the Naxxar parish church with just a few people present. Fr. Josef Pace celebrated the mass and also happens to me Claire’s cousin! In an interview with Gwida.mt, Fr. Josef Pace revealed some details about Julian and Claire’s wedding.
“Two years ago they came to me asking me to marry them,” he shares, saying they had been preparing for this day for some time. Fr. Josef actually told his cousin to wait! “I had a number of weddings to celebrate this year and obviously, everyone is now postponing to next year. When I realised that my cousin isn’t postponing I thought there was some hope, seeing as her fiancé’s father is Minister of Health, and I imagined they’d ask him. But when I realised time was pressing, I called her up.”
Fr. Josef shared that he asked her what her plans were, seeing as the date was getting closer. She told him that they would be going ahead with the wedding, following the measures that the health authorities were implementing. “And that’s what happened.”
“I encouraged her to postpone to next year,” Fr. Josef revealed, “But she said they felt prepared to take this step and there was nothing holding them back.”
“I never had a wedding like this,” he shares, noting the small number of people present and social distancing measures in place. “Even in the wedding introduction, usually you welcome the bride and groom and then all the others present,” he says saying that he had to change things up and welcome “all those that are watching us live on social media.”
When discussing the length of the mass, which was just 15 minutes long, he shares that, “I am not known to be one that takes long during mass – in fact, my celebrations are short just like me!” he jokes. Fr. Josef said that Julian and Claire’s celebration wasn’t a mass but just the rite of marriage, where he read the gospel, shared a short homily and then they celebrated the rite and Julian and Claire said their vows.
Congratulations to Julian & Claire!