The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), an association of Catholic bishops in the state, has started a matrimonial site called Prolifemarry.com, as an initiative to help divorced women, widows and middle-aged unmarried men find life partners.
According to Father Paul Madassery, KCBC Family Commission Secretary, there are about one lakh widows, all below 45 years old, in 32 dioceses under KCBC in Kerala. Through the matrimonial site, the church has decided to help these widows, preferably below the age of 45 and those who do not have any source of income, to get married again.
“This initiative is primarily to empower widows in the Christian community. We will contact each diocese to collect the list of widows from their parishes and compile a list within one year. We will talk to these widows,” said the priest.
Besides, according to an unofficial data collected by Syro Malabar Church, over one lakh Christian men above 30 years of age, under the church, are unable to find life partners. “This is an alarming situation as far as the church is concerned,” he told TNM.
“The unmarried men, widows and divorced women can register themselves on the website and find their life partners,” he said.
Although there is no registration fee, a small service charge will be levied to exchange contact details once the man and the woman like each other and would like to take the proposal forward.
Why men remain unmarried, according to church
Incidentally, in September, seven dioceses under KCBC had organised a meeting in Kozhikode district for unmarried men and women, all above 35 years of age, to help find life partners. The meeting saw 2,800 men and 200 women in attendance.
“Only a few men and women were able to find their life partners. The women who attended the meeting were well educated, while the men were not. And so, the women refused to marry them,” said Fr Paul.
They also conducted a survey in Kottayam and the northern part of Kerala (Kozhikode, Kannur, Thalassery, Thamarassery, Mananthavady and Sulthan Bathery) and found that as many as 15,000 Christian men have not been able to find life partners.
“Today, women are more educated and prefer men who are equally educated. While boys opt for technical courses or menial jobs after completing class 12, girls opt for higher education,” Fr Paul said.
The priest has also claimed that some Christain men also fail to find partners because the present culture in the Christian community has set 30 to 32 years as marriageable age for men. “We will counsel parents in the church to reduce the marriage age of men to 24-25 years,” he added.
In a pastoral letter issued by Changanacherry Archdiocese last month, Archbishop Mar Joseph Perumthottam had raised concerns over the declining marriage and birth rate in the Christian community in Kerala.
The letter stated that during the formative years of Kerala, Christians were the second largest community in the state. “But now it is only 18.38 percent of the total population of the state. In recent years, the birth rate of Christian community decreased to 14 percent,” the pastoral letter read.