Dublin, Ireland, Jul 5, 2018 / 14:00 pm
The Vatican official leading the Church's office for laity, family, and life has said that priests do not have the credibility or experience to prepare couples for marriage. The official made similar remarks to Catholic leaders in September 2017.
During an interview with the Irish Catholic magazine Intercom, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, said that "priests are not the best people to train others for marriage."
"They have no credibility; they have never lived the experience; they may know moral theology, dogmatic theology in theory, but to go from there to putting it into practice every day....they don't have the experience," the cardinal added.
Last September, speaking to a convention of Catholic leaders in Ireland, Farrell said that priests have "no credibility when it comes to living the reality of marriage," calling for laity to organize and administer marriage preparation programs.