Disney's clean image is doing nothing to win the Roman Catholic Church's blessing for weddings at the Magic Kingdom.

The nation's largest religious body has banned its priests from performing marriage ceremonies at the Magic Kingdom, where more than 1,700 couples will be married in style this year.

Nuptials belong inside a church, not at Disney World, Catholic officials said. "In the Judeo-Christian tradition, all special moments have been celebrated in the temple or the church," said Sister Lucy Vazquez, chancellor of the Diocese of Orlando. "Marriage is a sacrament, and we believe that all sacraments . . . must be celebrated in a church setting." To get the message out, Vazquez has written to her fellow chancellors in every diocese in the United States advising Roman Catholics of the Orlando policy: No local Roman Catholic priests will marry couples at Disney, nor will visiting priests be granted permission to perform the rite. "A wedding lasts a day. A marriage lasts a lifetime," Vazquez said. "We are trying to prepare people for a lifetime." The policy, which Bishop Norbert Dorsey announced more than a year ago, has caused problems for couples who arrived in Florida expecting marriage by a Roman Catholic priest, a Disney spokesman said. "We've had some misunderstandings people planned weddings, then they were disappointed," spokesman Bill Warren said. "It caused some hard feelings." Disney has agreements with most all other denominations for clergy to participate. Weddings can cost from $2,500 to $20,000, which is the price for a 100-guest evening in front of Cinderella's Castle.

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