The Archbishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, Most Reverend Leke Abegunrin, has warned against overbearing influence of parent on the marriage of their children.
Most Reverend Abegunrin handed down the warning at a workshop titled “Promotion of Christian Family Values in the Church” organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan.
According to him, this became necessary in view of the need to forestall and reduce increasing cases of crashes and broken marriages across the world.
He pointed out that there was the need for intending couples to seek advice from Church for guidance before heading for marriage, saying: “The Church, as a mother, with several years of experience in family and marriage related issues, has its laid down processes for preparation for a successful marriage”.
Abegunrin stressed that the “overbearing” influence of the parents on marriage of their children could lead to problems in the future, adding that “the direction of parent is commendable but watch out for an overbearing involvement.
“Before marriage is entered into, the Church specifies a period of preparation. This requires some form of meeting and planning between intending couples and the priest. On this point, I want to plead and encourage families to allow intending couples to be led by the church.
The church as a mother will not lead astray. There are situations where the involvement of parents of couples get overbearing and could lead to problems in the future,” he said.
Speaking further, he said “the direction of parent is commendable but watch out for an overbearing involvement. The church with years of experience already has laid out processes for preparation. So, allow them to be led,” and that family cannot be discussed without marriage because a good family is rooted in good marriage.
In his welcome address, the President of the Archdiocesan Laity, Mr. Steve Olasupo, observed that the various social vices and problems militating against families across the world deserved more conscious and structured approach and formation, promotion and sustenance of family values and Basic Christian Community (BBC).
“Mission of BBC was to serve as the human engineering that would carefully and politely ensure the welfare of Catholic Brothers, Sisters, Priests and the Religious. One of the ways of doing this is to regularly and openly acknowledge the health status, economic and social welfare of one another,” he said.
