Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
October 18, 2000
John Paul II to witness marriage of U.S. couple
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - While the bride was thinking about the final fitting of her gown, the groom was trying not to obsess over having at least 100,000 people present when Pope John Paul II celebrates his wedding.
Lidia Chavez, 31, and Nicolas Segoviano, 34, had been planning for months to get married at the Vatican rather than at their parish in San Jose, Calif.
But they were planning a wedding with about 80 guests in one of the side chapels of St. Peter's Basilica. Paulist Father Greg Apparcel, vice rector of the American parish in Rome, was going to preside.
Instead, they arrived in Rome Oct. 4 ready to be one of the eight couples marrying at a papal Mass Oct. 15 as part of the Jubilee for Families.
Does getting married by the Pope in front of all those people make you nervous? Does it make you feel like you have to be really holy?
"Well," said Segoviano, pausing, "yeah, yeah. There is a lot of pressure and I'm feeling it already. It is starting to feel real, and I'm overwhelmed."
Knowing that he'll know fewer than 1 percent of the people at his own wedding is something "I don't want to think about," he said. "I don't know how I will react. I just don't want to think about it."
Chavez, on the other hand, knew she gave up all control over her own wedding when she and Segoviano decided to accept the Vatican's offer.
No choosing music, buying flowers and having a full complement of bridesmaids, but "none of that bothered me," she said.
"I know some girls are so into the bridal party thing and the planning, but I've never been that way," Chavez said. "I'm fine without it."
The pressure may have been taking its toll on her, too, though: She slipped and had to go to the hospital Oct. 5 to have her ankle X-rayed.
The Vatican's wedding planning began in March when the office for papal liturgical ceremonies asked nuncios around the world to suggest couples.
Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, nuncio to the United States, passed the request to the U.S. bishops' conference, which passed it on to Santa Susanna, the U.S. parish in Rome.
The Paulists who run the parish and perform more than 50 weddings a year waited until a couple from the United States contacted them about the possibility of a fall wedding at the Vatican.
Father Apparcel said it was great that the first couple to ask them about an October date was Segoviano and Chavez, whom he had met when he celebrated her grandfather's funeral Mass in April.
"I thought that of all the couples I've met, this couple would be the most enthusiastic," he said.
Chavez, whose grandmother lives in Rome, grew up spending summers in Italy, "so they know the system. They are flexible and can go with the flow," the priest said.
The traffic, things running late, promises warmly made but often not kept, all make it difficult for an already-stressed bride and groom getting married in Italy, the priest said.
Segoviano's mother lives in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where news of her son's wedding by the Pope made a big splash.
"My mom is the happiest person in the world. She can't believe it," Segoviano said. "Coming from a small city in Mexico to the Vatican and being near the Pope, that's it for her.
Chavez said, "Since we aren't doing any personalized things in our ceremony, I thought it would be nice to give this to our mothers," who will receive Communion from the Pope during the Mass.
