“Twenty Weddings in Twenty Days” may sound like the latest Hollywood Blockbuster, but it was, in a sense, a reality for Osborne Park Parish priest, Fr Michael Gatt.
The energetic and passionate priest – widely known for his award-winning helpline that provides help to those in need over the Christmas period – was delighted at the explosion of marriages he was required to celebrate in recent weeks.
Fr Gatt explained how he had been “bombarded” throughout the month of March by some 20 couples over a 20 day period, all requesting him to prepare them for their Wedding Day.
“I just can’t say ‘No’,” he says with a laugh. “And they do, as always, enrich my life.”
Fr Gatt said that since his ordination 47 years ago, he has always been known as a Sacramental Priest, but he was still surprised by the sudden rush of recent requests.
With his curiosity piqued, Fr Gatt eventually started asking the couples – some of who were complete strangers – why they had come to him.
When they told him that people had been sharing his name through social media site, Facebook, he insisted that it was not something that he had advertised.
“But I thank the Good Lord that someone was,” he told them.
“It was such a privilege to be able to prepare and instruct people of good faith who are wanting to be married in the Church, and not in a garden or on the beach,” he shared.
“It was an experience that gave me great joy.”
The abundance of requests meant that throughout March, the St Kieran’s presbytery was regularly overflowing with young couples as they were prepared for marriage through counselling, courses and the organising of necessary documentation.
However, while the prospective Grooms and Brides have now been prepared for their lifelong commitment, Fr Gatt won’t have time to sit back and catch his breath.
“I am now in the process of preparing 300 children to receive Confirmation and Reconciliation,” he said with excitement.