Filipinos believe couples should cohabit before marriage

Filipinos believe couples should cohabit before marriage

Valentine’s Day survey reveals worrying social trend that goes against Catholic teaching

Most Filipino couples see nothing wrong with living together before getting married, according to a recent opinion poll.

Catholic Church-run Radyo Veritas conducted the poll on Feb. 14, St. Valentine’s Day, to gauge people’s views on marriage and premarital sex. The results were released on Feb. 16.

It revealed that 45 percent of respondents believed marriage was not necessary before living together, compared with 40 percent who did.

“Most here think that the Sacrament of Marriage is not an issue couples should think about before living together and sharing the same bed. This echoes the morality of the young of today,” the radio station said on Facebook.

The station’s president Father Anton Pascual said the survey results must not be ignored by parents and church leaders for they showed the sentiment of the young that could have an effect on family life in the future.

“The results pose a challenge for the Church’s ongoing mission to evangelize the faithfulm most especially nominal Catholicsm on the beauty of the Sacrament of Marriage … If this is the kind of answer that we get, perhaps many have not fully appreciated the teachings of the Church on marriage,” Father Pascual said in a Radyo Veritas interview on Feb. 16.

Father Pascual said evangelization was key for young Catholic couples to understand the “transcendent” value of marriage according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“To instill this social reality of the respondents’ perception towards a common-law partnership, we should evangelize our Catholic faithful on the transcendent value of marriage which places God in union between husband and wife,” he added.

Anthropologist and Divine Word Brother Clifford Sorita said many young people had changed their mindset on marriage based on what they encounter on the internet and in social media.

“This comes from the ‘instant mentality,’ which comes from this young age group being the most exposed to social media. The somewhat prolonged courtship process older generations experienced is something foreign among our young,” he told the radio station.

“Everyone now wants instant — instant coffee, instant noodles, instant partner or relationship. But not all things can be done instantly. Marriage is an example of this. It takes months or years for a couple to know each other. But many want instant relationships, so they immediately live under one roof. If there’s a problem, then they change their partner instantly as well,” he said.