Fort Wayne woman marries God | WANE

So, prior to Sheila Ryan's wedding in June, this ritual rite of becoming a consecrated virgin was foreign.  Now we have a second one.  From Sarah Rasher, 

To hear Hayes talk about her marriage to Christ — which differs from becoming a nun because Hayes remains a layperson — her decision is in line with contemporary ideas about sexual diversity and acceptance of differences.

“I think that in some sense, we’re all called to be married. It’s just a matter of discerning how. So, my marriage is to Christ and someone else’s marriage is to their spouse. A priest’s marriage is to the church. That’s a good desire that’s planted in us by God. The real question is how, how is this lived most joyfully in me,” Hayes said. “I do think that not everybody has the same path. To be able to look at all of these different ways of life and to see people living them out joyfully is an invitation to consider a little bit more deeply what those things mean.”

That’s perfectly fine, but when Hayes talks about her goal of convincing more girls to marry Jesus, she’s probably going to want a more convincing argument than the pure joy of perpetual abstinence:

“I think, especially with the young women I’ve worked with in my teaching so far, the religious life isn’t something that many of them consider because we don’t have women religious teaching with us in our schools like we used to years ago. So, many of them don’t consider that as an option anymore because they don’t see young women their own age considering it and joining it. That’s really something I try to expose my female students a little bit more to,” Hayes said.

It’s hard to imagine many American teenagers finding this option appealing.

Fort Wayne woman marries God | WANE