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| Fr. Oskar Wermter, SJ, Pastoral Coordinator, IMBISA |
The changing role of the women in society, migration of people in search of better employment opportunities and the public opinion, propelled by the social media are the three major threats to the marriage institution and family life that the Catholic Church must pay close attention to and address; says Fr. Oskar Wermter, SJ, Pastoral Coordinator of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa, IMBISA.
Speaking to AMECEA Online News in Dar-es-Salaam last week during the workshop organized by AMECEA to revive the Council of the Laity for Eastern Africa (COLEA), Fr. Wermter said that the Church is aware of great changes taking place in the social sphere in the relationships between men and women.
“The role of women has changed; women themselves are changing, they want their human dignity to be recognized and they want to play a more responsible role both in families and public life and men find it sometimes difficult to adapt to this new role of women and the to the way women understand themselves,” he explained.
“Some women go as far as rejecting marriage all together because they find many marriages oppressive; some opt to raise children as single parents for fear of being disappointed by the marriage institution; this kind of thinking is wide spreading; it is something the Church should worry about; it is something that needs to be urgently addressed.”
The whole question of migration, where by a spouse has to move abroad in search of employments while leaving the rest of the family behind is another factor that is putting lots of strain in many marriages and family life of which according to Fr. Wermter the Church needs to intervene.
“I come from Zimbabwe, where three or four million of inhabitants are outside the country because of economic difficulties, the economy is down, people don’t have work especially the youth. There is no employment in the country and this is putting stress on families, some of which end up breaking,” he explained.
Finally the messages we get from the media which forms public opinion in most cases is do not favor marriage and family. “Young people are strongly influenced by the internet, by what they get on social media. Often parents have great difficulty passing on their faith to children because they are being educated by other forces,” this Fr. Wermter says that puts a lot of strain on family relationships and the church must find a way to address.
The Church has to make a huge effort to get its own message across, Fr. Wermter suggested adding the Gospel of the family and the good news of the family is totally positive and is very constructive and the Church must find a way to pass it across.
Source: Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Social Communication