Pope Francis honours Bulawayo couples

ROMAN Catholic Church Pope Francis has honoured 43 couples from the Archdiocese of Bulawayo, who have been married for more than 50 years.

Twenty three couples received certificates engraved with the Pope's seal during a combined mass of all Roman Catholic churches in Bulawayo, while the rest will receive theirs at Empandeni Mission on October, 3, this year.

Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bulawayo, Alex Thomas Kaliyanil, who handed over the certificates, made the proposal to the Pope for the couples to be honoured.

Archbishop Thomas yesterday said the recognition bestowed on the couples was also a measure to encourage youths in the face of high divorce rates.

"Marriage is very important. This is the first time to honour couples who have been in a long marriage in our church. It also comes at a time that our theme for this year at church is ‘Our Faith in the family,'" said the Bishop.

"Our oldest couple has been married for 56 years and by honouring such couples who have stuck to each other for this long, we seek to encourage the youth to get married and take it up because we have been noticing that the divorce rate is very high."

The Archdiocese of Bulawayo is the first diocese to be honoured in this way by the Pope.

Archbishop Thomas said being faithful is one key to a lasting marriage.

"Marriage is very challenging and most youths have fear and anxiety of getting betrayed but faithfulness to each other and God's blessing is very important to keep marriages. That is why we encourage people to get married in churches," he said.