Mumbai’s Catholic Church is offering ‘marriage enrichment’ cards and free weekend cruises for couples who enroll for its marriage strengthening courses.
As part of its scheme to save marriages from, what it sees as, the onslaught of globalisation and media-driven values, Mumbai’s Catholic Church is offering ‘marriage enrichment’ cards and free weekend cruises for couples who enroll for its marriage strengthening courses.
The Church feels that it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep alive some of the everyday rituals that kept families together — like eating and praying together —with partners doing odd shifts in new work places like call centres.
The cruises, which are part of the motivations offered to couples to come for the course, will be financed by the Church. Already over 100 couples have signed up for the course.
“The added incentives will definitely help to bring people to the meetings,” said Santa Cruz resident Joseph Dias, who attended a meeting on the issue on Sunday as a representative of St Anthony’s Church, Vakola.
The Roman Catholic Church does not recognise divorce but can declare marriages as null.
Statistics collected by the Archdiocese of Bombay do not indicate that increasing number of marriages are in trouble.
In 2009, the number of marriages declared null was 106, compared to the 2,628 weddings in the year.
In comparison, 2,536 couples got married in 2001 and 104 got separated. According to Agnelo Gracias, auxiliary bishop of Bombay, this figure does not include estranged couples who do not come to church to get their union annulled.
“Even if you double the number of marriages declared null, the figure is low compared to marriages,” said Gracias.
Nevertheless, the Church feels that married couples need help to stay together. “Marriages now face a lot of stress. If couples do not get help at an early stage, it could lead to a breakdown,” he said.
The Church already runs an organisation called Snehalaya that provides marriage preparatory and counselling courses. But it plans to set up more centres where trained personnel can offer basic counselling services to couples with tottering marriages.
Also planned are regular meetings for community members married to non-Christians. The Church feels that such unions need more help to survive cultural divides.
Recently, a Catholic woman married outside the community wanted to get her marriage annulled. She complained that the insistence of her husband’s parents that she touch the feet of family elders was a constant source of stress.
“The differences in culture and the resulting disagreements over how to bring up children are potential problems that can break mixed marriages. Consequently, such marriages have a greater tendency to fail,” said Dias.
Other Catholics feel that marriage strengthening courses cannot offer solutions to all problems. “It may help people who go by the rule book. But it has limited use for those who like to go by experience. People have to build on their lives and learn to live together,” said interior designer Clyde Crasto.
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