(via Inquirer.net<\/a>) While the debate on the divorce bill rages in Congress, Catholic marriages in the country are on track for a record drop this year and the next, a Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines<\/a> (CBCP) official said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, said that based on the Catholic Directory, the number of church marriages is set to drop from 177,940 in 2008-2009 to just 166,0000 this year and in 2011.<\/p>\n

Castro said this was because Filipinos were marrying at a later age and couples were opting for civil marriages first before going for a \u201cgrand\u201d church wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The) trend is Filipinos are getting married at an older age unlike before when Filipinos would tie the knot when they\u2019re still young,\u201d<\/em> said Castro in an interview over the Church\u2019s Radio Veritas.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause those getting married are getting older, the number of people tying the knot in church is going down.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He said that in the diocese of Tarlac, the number of those opting for civil marriages was \u201con the rise because it is free when you have it before the mayor.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 They later get married in church.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not because of the church fees but because as Filipinos they want to prepare for a church wedding. Filipinos are very particular that they have a grand church wedding so they postpone it,\u201d<\/em> Castro said.<\/p>\n

He said the Church had also noticed a \u201cglaring phenomenon\u201d of more and more Filipino women marrying foreigners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a glaring phenomenon of so many interracial marriages involving Filipinas. Maybe foreigners are really falling in love with Filipinas. So it\u2019s interracial and, more often than not, (it\u2019s) a mixed marriage with the man having a different religion,\u201d<\/em> Castro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn several instances, the groom would convert and get baptized in the Church but that is discouraged\u2014to convert just for the sake of marriage,\u201d <\/em>he said.<\/p>\n

Castro said Filipino women entering into interracial marriages was a \u201cphenomenon\u201d happening not just in the country but also in the large Filipino communities abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will also notice this abroad where there are really many Filipinos getting married, either with a fellow Filipino or with somebody from another race,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(via Inquirer.net) While the debate on the divorce bill rages in Congress, Catholic marriages in the country are on track for a record drop this year and the next, a Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) official said Saturday. Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weddingsatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}