August 31, 2010

More Pinoys Having Civil Wedding Before “Grand” Philippine Church Wedding


The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) revealed that more soon-to-wed couples are opting for a Philippine civil wedding first before having a “grand” Philippine church wedding.

In an interview with CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life Executive Secretary Fr. Melvin Castro over Radyo Veritas, soon-to-wed couples prefer to have simple or, in other cases, free civil weddings because they are less expensive. “It’s not because of the church fees but because as Filipinos, they want to prepare for a church wedding,” Fr. Castro said. However, he explained that it is not the Catholic Church that requires couples to have an extravagant wedding. He cited that Filipinos are very particular that their Philippine church wedding should be grand so they postpone it in order for them to save up.

On the other hand, Fr. Castro also explained that couples are now tying the knot at an older age. Therefore, the number of people having a church wedding is going down. Based on the Catholic Directory, the number of church marriages is set to drop from 177,940 in 2008-2009 to merely 166,0000 this year until 2011.

Fr. Castro mentioned about the “glaring phenomenon” of many Filipinos having interracial and inter-religion marriages. Based on a data he presented, marriages between Catholic Filipinos and non-Catholics increased, from 8,900 in 2008-2009 to 10,200 this year. Although the Church allows this, mixed marriages must have a just and reasonable cause.


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Kasal.com thanks the following sources for this article:
Macairan, Evelyn, The Philippine Star. Fewer Pinoys getting married in church (Posted August 22, 2010) Retrieved August 31, 2010 from
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=605027&publicationSubCategoryId=63

Sun.Star Network Online. Number of Church wedding drops (Posted August 22, 2010) Retrieved August 31, 2010 from
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/network/number-church-wedding-drops-818-am

Tubeza, Philip, Philippine Daily Inquirer. Bishops see record decline in Catholic Church weddings (Posted August 21, 2010) Retrieved August 31, 2010 from
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100821-288114/Bishops-see-record-decline-in-Catholic-Church-weddings

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