It is "vital" that young couples spend more time preparing for marriage because it is a life-long commitment, according to the Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh, Dr Gerard Clifford. He was launching a new booklet yesterday for couples planning their wedding.
Dr Clifford said marriage was a vocation and "in other callings and vocations in life, years of formation and training are regarded as absolutely essential".
"It is vital, therefore, that more and more time be given to involve a couple in preparation for marriage preparation."
Dr Clifford said marriage was "a life's work and it demands a life's commitment". Everyone knew about the "whirlwind of expectations" and "we know too that in the midst of these pressures, the importance of the sacrament of marriage can be lost".
The Planning Your Wedding Day booklet sets out the requirements needed for getting married in a Catholic church in this State and in Northern Ireland. It also lists the civil requirements, including the need to meet a registrar at least three months before to give the required notice.
It was produced by Accord, the Catholic marriage care service, and will be available through all churches and in Accord's 58 centres, North and South. Accord also runs www.gettingmarried.ie
Accord runs pre-marriage courses as well as counselling services and meets about 9,500 couples every year.
"That is no mean boast," Dr Clifford said. "It is a work for marriage and for society done quietly and without fanfare by hundreds of individuals throughout Ireland."
The booklet was launched at the Carmelite Church in Dublin's Whitefriar Street, where St Valentine's remains are held and whose feast day falls on Thursday.
He was a priest and physician in Rome and is regarded as the patron of young couples preparing for marriage.
