Ethnic Chin couples regularize marriages

A priest from Pyay diocese in western Myanmar has organized a campaign to regularize the marriages of couples who had never taken part in a Church-approved wedding ceremony. Father Aung Lin Sein, parish priest of Myaebon parish, celebrated a Mass on Dec. 1 for 10 Set-tu Chin couples under a tarpaulin-roofed church in Maung-shin village.

The region was hard hit by Cyclone Giri in October which destroyed 100 homes and unroofed many others in the area.

Of nine couples who presented for marriage, one spouse was non-Catholic. They all received baptism before the Mass.

“Only those with religious knowledge remarried in the Church and the majority of them consider it normal to just live together and raise their children,” Father Aung Lin Sein told ucanews.com.

Si Si Win 46, whose partner is a Baptist, said she was very happy that she could now take part in the Eucharist with her family.

“I’m also happy because my husband accepted my request to marry in the church,” she said.

Si Si said that before her church wedding she felt like a sinner, especially when she was unable to receive communion.

Ne Tun, 42, an animist who lived with his Catholic wife for 11 years, said that he and his wife had never thought of marrying in the church.

“After the cyclone hit, it made me afraid for the future life of my wife and children,” he said.

“I came to realize that my wife is not allowed to take part fully in Church celebrations like the other Catholics,” Ne Tun explained.

Maung-shin villager Tun Tin, 52, said that most Set-tu Chin couples eloped and did not require their parents’ permission to marry.

Father Aung Lin Sein said that the parish planned to send catechists and nuns to instruct more couples who are yet to marry in the church.

source:ucanews