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Nov 17, 2006 2:05 pm US/Eastern
TomKat's Scientology Wedding To Be 'Traditional'
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ―
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Cruise and Holmes have reportedly chosen the popular "Double Ring" ceremony. It contains the much-publicized Triangle ritual. (File)
(Boris Horvat/AFP/Getty Images)
Ahead of Saturday's wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in Italy, the President of the Church of Scientology of San Francisco has been busy describing marriages on national television.
Jeff Quiros is regarded as the foremost expert on Scientology weddings, having performed countless ceremonies himself.
Quiros says people seem to think there are strange rituals involved, but Scientology weddings are similar to other church weddings, he said.
"It's extremely traditional. As a matter of fact, to look at one from the outside, you wouldn't be able to tell any difference. The bride's family sits on one side, the groom's on the other," Quiros said.
The Church of Scientology of San Francisco allowed CBS affiliate KPIX-TV into its chapel where services and marriages are performed.
Near a stack of books on Dianetics and under the gaze of a large bust of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the church, "there's a processional where the bride is given away by her father. The bride and groom stand here, and the minister faces them," Quiros said.
There are five different wedding services.
In what the church calls a traditional ceremony, the groom says, "Hear well ... for promise binds, young men are free and may forget, remind him then that you may have necessities and follies too."
Hubbard wrote the ceremony back in the 1950s.
One part refers to providing everything from a pan to a cat.
"Girls need clothes and food and tender happiness and frills, a pan, a comb, perhaps a cat."
Quiros says it's not about felines but feelings.
"I need to realize there are things important to her that I might think are silly or frivolous or not necessary or whatever. If I want a long-lasting relationship, I'm going to have to be attentive to those needs," Quiros explained.
Cruise and Holmes have reportedly chosen the more popular "Double Ring" ceremony. It contains the much-publicized Triangle ritual where the wedding rings are held up to the guests.
"They're asked to imagine that inside each ring is an 'ARC' triangle," Quiros said, referring to an acronym for "affinity, reality, communication."
The couple is also asked to make a pact "that you will never close your eyes and sleep on a broken triangle," Quiros said. "And that pledge is that they'll never close their eyes and sleep on an upset or disagreement or argument."
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