Religion: Over the Hurdle

“The fact that Claire is a Catholic and I a member of the Orthodox Church,” gloomed handsome young Bridegroom Ivan Obolensky, “was a hurdle to our marriage of which we were both aware.” Considering the young people’s families, that was understandable enough.

Ivan is not only Yale ’47, ex-U.S. Navy and grandson of the late John Jacob Astor; he is also the spiritual heir of a hundred proud Orthodox princes of Muscovy. Ivan’s father, Prince Serge Obolensky, renounced his own Czarist title to become a U.S. citizen, eventually became manager of Manhattan’s Sherry-Netherland Hotel. But even though Colonel Obolensky married an Episcopalian Astor, he brought his son up strictly in the Orthodox faith and hoped he would marry in it.

Mrs. Felix McGinnis, whose late husband was a railroad vice president (The Southern Pacific), was just as staunchly Roman Catholic. For her pretty daughter Claire, obviously nothing would do but a Catholic wedding. Ivan and Claire themselves, pious though they might be, were breathless with the thousand and one urgencies of a society betrothal. The ancient schisms of the Christian church can seem far removed, sometimes, from the exciting immediacies of Park Avenue.

Heady Glow. As the nuptials drew near, rings were chosen, dresses fitted, attendants picked, bachelor dinners and bridal showers enjoyed. Meanwhile, there was the business of arranging for a marriage ceremony and the signing of a sheaf of papers, all undertaken in a heady glow of anticipation.

One afternoon last week, in the rectory of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Claire and Ivan were finally married in a swirl of cream satin, rolling organ music, popping flashbulbs and happy smiles. When that ceremony was done, the newlyweds trooped down to Manhattan’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, there were married all over again with double crowns and crown bearers. A brilliant reception at the Sherry-Netherland’s Chanteclair Room added the final touch of ritual.

Solemn Promise. Then the blow fell. The confetti had scarcely been swept up when a solemn statement rang out from the chancery office of the Catholic archdiocese of New York. “Newspapers, in describing the marriage . . .,” the statement said, “have mentioned a second marriage ceremony . . . Both parties solemnly promised in writing that there would be only the Catholic ceremony . . . Therefore, the Catholic party automatically incurred excommunication.”

Said the bridegroom: “If I signed any such agreement, the effect of it was not realized by me. I was willing to participate in a wedding ceremony in accordance with my wife’s faith and she felt the same about mine.” Excommunicated Claire made no comment at all. The archdiocese hinted that she could be reinstated in the Roman Catholic Church if she made a confession of error and did proper penance.