"VOUNG couples nowadays
1arc. spending on their weddings ..tims which are out of all proportion to the money available to them for settling down," said Mr. Maurice Foley. former vicepresident of the Young Christian Workers, at the Catholic People's Week at Stonyhurst.
He had been talking about premarriage training courses—"needed in every parish"—and remarked on the need to dovetail practical training in furniture-making and cooking with courses on the doctrine of marriage.
The gathering agreed that more should be made of the Mass—a Nuptial Mass wherever possible attended by as many parishioners as possible.
And Dorn Ralph Russell suggested that the bride's dress should be a present to her from the parishioners.
A centralised community of priests would solve many economic difficulties and enable priests to help each other and work together more easily, said Fr. William Raftery, V.F., of Fleetwood, Lanes.
The subject for the week was "The Parish." Eighty people were there of all ages, from babies in arms to grandfathers. While the adults were at the lectures and discussions, the children played in the grounds or indoor playrooms at St, Mary's.
Fr. Raftery summed up the discussion with these words: "We shall have to think on missionary lines, otherwIse we are doomed to defeat. We mast give up seeing our Catholic parishes as enclosed gardens, spending large sums of money on them and ignoring those outside,"