Bishop Denis Nulty
Photo: Irish Mirror Bishop Denis McNulty has expressed his faith in the work of Accord Catholic Marriage Care, of which he is president, despite falling numbers.
“A huge number of people are coming to our preparation’s courses, 15,000 that’s a huge number of people. And a huge number are coming to our counselling services.”
A report from Accord released on Tuesday stated that the number of people attending sacramental marriage preparation courses fell by just under 2,000 to 14,894 in the last two years. The number of counselling sessions provided by the three Accord companies fell by 2,940 in the same timeframe.
“What’s important is how many people are helped and how many people are accompanied on that journey and we in Accord welcome them very warmly,” he said.
“Marriage is the bedrock of society so it needs it be funded to support people in relationship as well and where relationships break down, the cost to society is huge as well.”
Discrimination
In 2018 there was fear that a move from Tusla requiring any agency funded by them to agree to non-discriminatory policies forbidding discrimination on several grounds including sexual orientation, would impact publicly-funded Catholic counselling agencies.
However, Accord have continued to receive around €1.6 million per year in funding for their marriage and relationship counselling services. “If in counselling someone needs support accord will welcome people, its non-judgemental its gently accompanying people,” said the bishop.
The marriage preparation courses are funded by fees.