Monday, March 23, 2009

Priest warns of downside to blind wedding experiment

A Waterford priest has criticised a competition on a local radio station which will involve two people getting married without ever having met in person until the wedding day.

Fr Liam Power of St John’s parish, has said he has some reservations about the ‘2 strangers & A Wedding’ competition which is currently under way on the station Beat 102-103.

‘Two Strangers and a Wedding copies a similar social experiment which was started in Australia.

Beat 102-103 describes the venture as a “social experiment” which will aim to answer the questions 'Is Love really blind?’ and ‘Is there such a thing as love at first sight in the south-east?'

The promoters of the competition say they are searching the greater Waterford region for “two people who will be brave enough to not meet or make eye contact with each other until their wedding day,“

The station claims the outcome could be “the greatest love story ever told” if it were possible to “remove first physical impressions” and “match perfectly, two single consenting adults chosen from hundreds of volunteers” who would then meet “for the very first time on their wedding day at the altar”.

It says that the benefit of technology and the back-up of the “best, most qualified people to assist” will stack the odds in favour of finding two people who are compatible and give them “a great chance to fall in love and share a life together”.

“Basically, we want to know Is love really blind -we are taking away all the physical, superficial and leaving only what's real” Beat 102-103 claims

“It's a meeting of the heart, not of the eye”.

In appealing for competitors to enter, the station said it was doing “all the legwork” for people who wanted to meet a compatible marriage partner.

“Basically, we're playing Cupid, we'll do all the background checks, get love experts in, psychologists, etc”.

Presenter Leigh Doyle said that already five potential bride entrants have been shortlisted and will talk about themselves on air on the station.

Experts who chose the final five were, he said, surprised by how genuine the girls were and fond them “completely in it for the right reasons.”

Over twenty applications from men have been received from which the groom will be chosen, Mr Doyle revealed.

The entire wedding, including clothes and honeymoon, will be completely paid for by sponsors and will take place on April 6 in Hotel Kilkenny.

The event will be broadcast live on air on Beat 102-103.

But Fr Power said he was concerned that the generous prize for the winners of the competition might attract people to enter for the wrong reason.

“The promise of a free wedding and accommodation might put pressure on the couple to stay together,” he pointed out.

Fr Power said that getting to know one another in public over the radio would not give a prospective wedding couple time to get to know one another properly.
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(Source: CIN)