A senior clergy leader in Scotland has called for urgent action after Catholic marriages in Scotland fell to their lowest level since 1941.
Monsignor Peter Magee, the head of the Scottish Catholic Interdiocesan Tribunal has suggested that one day in the calendar year be dedicated to the promotion of marriage, as a way of arresting the slide.
last year just 1,346 marriages in Scotland were conducted by clergy from the Roman Catholic Church. This is down from a high of just over 7,000 in 1970, and is the lowest number for 75 years.
Half of all marriages carried out in Scotland in 2016 were civil ceremonies, those carried out by a registrar, a trend that has also resulted in declines of marriages carried out by religious celebrants, with the number of religious marriages falling by 44 per cent since 1975.
The Catholic Church has blamed an overall fall in marriage rates (with 2009 the lowest rate since 1858) on what they characterised as “aggressive secularisation”.
The Catholic Church has blamed an overall fall in marriage rates (with 2009 the lowest rate since 1858) on what they characterised as “aggressive secularisation”.
A bit rich to claim aggression when they used to make conversion to the faith a compulsory part of mixed marriages. I don't think they still do so.
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