Rockin' the House Down

In congratulating fellow blogger Andrew Sullivan on his same-sex wedding, Rod Dreher wrote the following on his blog:

Anyway, mazel tov, Andrew, and I hope your reception is at least as rockin' as Jenna Bush's will be.

At first, I wondered what he meant by "rockin'". Then I realized that Rod, being Russian Orthodox, may have been referring to this incident.

The Russian Orthodox Church has demolished a chapel where a priest conducted a marriage ceremony between two men.

The Chapel of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was apparently knocked down after local churchmen decided it had been defiled.

The "marriage" of Denis Gogolyev and Mikhail Morozev in Nizhny Novgorod scandalised the Orthodox Church and created outrage among ordinary Russians. The priest, Fr Vladimir Enert, was unfrocked after the men said they paid him a £300 bribe to ignore a ban on same-sex marriages.

A spokesman for the Orthodox Church said the chapel had to go as it had been desecrated.

So you get married in a little chapel and it literally brings the place down. That would be a story to tell your kids, if you were able to have kids.

Hat tip to CourageMan in this post. The link referring to the defrocking of the priest is broken, but that fact is worth noting also.

Just found it; here's the defrocking link. It's a darkly humorous narrative of simony and corruption. Reminds me of Dog Day Afternoon which is based on a true story. The Catholic Priest was mentioned in the film as having been defrocked as well. (I have to watch that flick again; that telephone conversation scene is priceless. And John Cazale, that guy who played Fredo in the Godfather? oh, man, is his character hilarious....)