I'm an agnostic, thank God

All this pope stuff has me thinking about religion. Again.

A strange thing. Even though I'm resigning myself to being agnostic, and plan to emphatically not bring up any offspring in the Catholic church, I have to admit that think I wouldn't feel fully, properly - oh gack, spiritually - married if I hadn't had a church wedding.

I know. I'm afraid it makes me a hypocrite of the highest order, but there it is. I can only put it down to my upbringing. Somehow, being married in the eyes of the law wouldn't have been enough for me - it would lack the extra magic (for want of a better word) that formally acknowledges that being in love is an amazing thing. Rationally, I know that we didn't get sprinkled with heavenly fairy-dust when the priest said the words, but, I dunno, it just seems to put a seal on Us that a registry office couldn't. It's very hard to articulate, but apparently even when I'm not sure I believe in a higher power, I still wanted him/her/it to sign off on my marriage.