One day before her wedding, Amala Paul's recent engagement to director A L Vijay has been called invalid by the Catholic church. Despite the show of rings by the couple and the grand, almost wedding like ceremony, which included an exchange of rings, supposedly overseen by a 'priest', both Amala's father Paul Varghese and the church now deny that it was an engagement ceremony. While the church calls the betrothal invalid, Varghese calls the whole 'engagement' affair just a prayer.
A section of people from the Christian community in Kerala had started accusing Amala Paul's family of violating some basic rules of the Christian engagement and started spreading rumours saying that the engagement was not held as per Christian customs. Hence, in a move that seems to have been made to avert controversy, her father Paul Varghese has reportedly issued a statement saying that it was just a prayer and not an engagement. In the statement, Amala Paul's father also says that the actress grew up in and around the St. Jude Church, at Aluva in Kochi, and had special affection towards the church and it was only because of that that they decided to have the 'prayer' there. A guest who attended the ceremony says, "The couple exchanged rings as the priest prayed for them. They then walked out and displayed their rings to the waiting press."
However, according to Syro Malabar Church spokesperson Fr Paul Thelakkat, it was not a legally valid ceremony. "It was not a legally valid betrothal that was conducted at the church. But people got such an impression, that's all," he said and further added that, "A Christian engagement will be considered valid only if it was presided over by a legally valid person." When asked if it was a legally valid priest who conducted the ceremony, Fr Paul maintained that he does not want to discuss or reveal how or who conducted it.
Amala Paul gets married to director A L Vijay in a traditional Chettiyar ceremony, in Chennai, today.
ACTRESS AMALA PAUL ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS
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