Pope Francis marries couples who "lived in sin"

ABS-CBN News reported Monday (September 15) that a single mother, people who have been married before, and other couples who have been living together "in sin" were married by Pope Francis in a taboo-challenging ceremony at the Vatican on Sunday.

The Pope asked to marry 40 people from different social backgrounds who would be a realistic sample of modern couples. One of the couples he married was single mother Gabriella and her partner Guido, whose previous marriage was annulled by an ecclesiastical tribunal.

Marriage "is not an easy road, it’s sometimes a contentious trip, but that’s life," said Francis during the two-hour ceremony. Popes very rarely perform marriages and the last time it happened was under the leadership of John Paul II in 2000, and before that in 1994.

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