ACCRA, JULY 19, 2019 (CISA) – Archbishop Philip Naameh, president of Ghana Bishops’ Conference, has urged the Church to reaffirm the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage.
Speaking during the memorial lectures of Mureau Murat with the theme, ‘Responding to Amoris Laetitia with love in the family’, he noted that divorce was causing great pain to families.
“Divorce or separation is a serious wound to the indissolubility of the marriage bond and the good of marriage in general,” he said during the lecture at Christ the King Parish.
The Bishop attributed pressure from parents on their children to marry as the cause of divorces experienced in marriages.
“Pressure from parents on their sons or daughters to marry at the parents’ convenience is worrisome, this phenomenon has forced a number of people to marry against their will,” he said.
He urged the clergy and laity to take up the responsibility of educating people on matrimonial consent and impediments to marriage because with the existence of many ideas about marriage in the world, the Christian understanding of marriage as total commitment is at stake.
The Archbishop reminded the Church that the decision to marry and to have a family should be a fruit of vocational discernment which would lead to making a free choice in the matter.
Ghana’s latest census in 2010 showed that 3.4 percent of Ghanaians 15 years and older were divorced. There are an estimated 29 million people in the West African country.
In 2016-2017, 73 percent of divorce cases handled by the Legal Aid Scheme of Greater Accra were filed by women.
