Catholic Church to felicitate large families

KOCHI: The Catholic Church’s programme to felicitate large families will be held at Changanassery this week. ‘Jeevasamridhi’, the programme launched by Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council pro life committee and Chavara Family Welfare Centre, will honour couples who got married after 1990 and have more than four children, and couples who have been married for 40 years and have more than five children.
As the dwindling Christian population has been a concern, the church took the initiative to promote the concept of big families. It plans to felicitate 5,000 families with more than four children. In Pala, the programme identified 500 couples who have not restricted the number of children to two. “Even young couples are in favour of large families. We are not making this an aggressive campaign. It is just to promote family values and tradition, and we need to maintain a balance,” says Fr Jose Kottayil, programme co-ordinator.
Church officials maintain, kids from large families should be given preference in school admissions and hospitals. In Changanassery, the programme will be held at SB College on Sunday at 11 am.