KUCHING — Dr Bernard and Mrs Ying Ying Thio, Rev Fr Garcia and their 15 team members from Singapore were in Kuching on the weekend of 21-22 April to conduct the Couple Empowerment Programme held at the Christian Ecumenical Worship Centre (CEWC). Thirty four couples married ten years and below from the Archdiocese attended the programme. They went away better informed with updated knowledge and wisdom.
Dr Bernard, a medical practitioner by profession and his wife, Ying Ying, a litigation lawyer have been helping a lot of young couples out of their marital blues and regain good and healthy relationships. They were here to help Sarawakians because the predicament is also true in Sarawak. Most marital breakdowns occur during the first five years of marriage due to lack of commitment, adjustment problems, financial issues, in-laws, poor communications and throwing intimacy out of the windows.
The Opening Mass was concelebrated by Rev Fr Augustine Jepy and Fr David Garcia OP.
Fr Garcia who is a Dominican priest of the Order of Preachers. He holds a Licentiate in Moral Theology and currently lectures at St Francis Xavier Seminary in Singapore. Besides being a sought after speaker, he is the spiritual director of the team.
Major topics covered during the programme included “Giving Life”, “Marital Spirituality”, “Covenantal Marriage”, “Building Intimacy”, “Joys of Marital Sex” and “Reconciliation”. The participating couples were also given the timely chance for Confession. It was also pointed out that successful businessmen are mainly from happy families where children are also happier and perform better in schools. Divorce is strongly discouraged because it is not an alternative. Generally, couples who have divorced take several years to recover but their children never do.
The recommendation from the team for a successful and happy marriage is to join church groups such as covenant communities, cell groups, family rosary blocs and the like that meet regularly. This is best done as soon as after wedding.
Rev Fr Simon Poh concelebrated the Closing Mass with Fr Garcia. On behalf of the Archbishop he thanked and expressed his gratitude to the team for having done an excellent job in enlightening couples as empowerment in their marriages. Last but not least he and presented souvenirs to all the speakers as tokens of appreciation.
Peter Wong
