The head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has clarified that couples cannot write their own Catholic wedding vows.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan said the Rite of Marriage does not provide an option for couples to publicly express their love in their own words.
Responding to queries from some couples preparing for their weddings, he said that personal spiritual expressions "should not be mixed with the liturgies of the church.
"The liturgy is not ours to change at whim," Archbishop Villegas said.
He stressed that the regulation of the "sacred liturgy" depends solely on the Vatican and in limited cases, to the bishops' conferences.
"Hence, no other person, not even a priest may add, remove or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority," he said, citing a provision from Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.