The bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has defended his policy of restricting couples having Church weddings in his diocese to using pre-marriage courses run by two agencies. Dr Walsh admitted that priests in his diocese only accept marriage courses run by the Redemptorists in Esker, Co. Galway and Accord, of which he is chairman.
But he said it was up to the bishop in each diocese to decide what was “a proper standard of course for his diocese.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the only courses appropriate for this diocese are the ones run by Accord and the Redemptorists,” Dr Walsh declared.
He rejected claims that Accord was profit-making and said it was run almost exclusively by non-paid volunteers.
“It is run by volunteers and they do not receive any form of payment unless they are involved in more than 60 hours of counselling in a year.”
“The money from the courses goes towards training and other costs such as organising a venue and supervision for the trainers.”
The bishop was responding to Mr David Kavanagh of the Avalon Marriage Training Agency, who claimed his firm’s courses were acceptable to every bishop in Ireland apart from Dr Walsh.
Mr Kavanagh said that two years ago the bishop had sent him a letter supporting the Avalon pre-marriage courses.
“I am very disappointed that the bishop is giving the impression that some marriages courses are not up to scratch and are not to the standard of the Accord model,” he said.
“The professionally-trained people who run these courses would be very insulted by the bishop.”
Mr Kavanagh said that the recession meant that many couples were “not in a position to spend the €200 which the Accord course costs.”
In a reference to public funding of Accord he said he was “very concerned that a government supported organisation is actively seeking to create a monopoly situation.”
At the weekend, it was reported that the Competition Authority was monitoring developments.
SIC: CIN