Why is Catholic dating so hard? Find answers at the NEC

Michie said:

(OSV News) — The Catholic Project, an initiative of The Catholic University of America, will host a panel on Catholic dating July 19 at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

The event — titled “Catholic Dating: Why Is It So Hard?” — seeks to fill a “gap in the programming (at the Congress) … for young professionals,” said Stephen P. White, executive director of The Catholic Project.

Addressing isolation among young adult Catholics​

“There’s plenty of programming for families. There’s programming for young people. But we thought, ‘What about these 20- or 30-somethings?’ This is the age where a lot of Catholics find themselves isolated. You see people falling away from the faith at this stage,” said White.

For many Catholics who are single in their 20s and 30s, the topic of dating and finding a spouse is of particular interest. As reported previously by OSV News, Catholic weddings per year plummeted dramatically between 1970 and 2021. While much of the decline can be linked to a decline in church attendance and belief generally, even Catholic young adults who are engaged with their faith encounter significant obstacles to finding a Catholic spouse.

“Why is something that has been so natural for so long, the most natural thing in the world — boy meets girl, they fall in love, they start a family — why is that suddenly something that our society seems to be really struggling with?” said White.

The panel, which includes six unmarried Catholics, will discuss this question. To Sara Perla, communications manager for The Catholic Project, it was important to find panelists who are still single themselves, giving them a unique insight into the Catholic dating scene.

Continued below.

Why is Catholic dating so hard? Find answers at the NEC

An event -- titled "Catholic Dating: Why Is It So Hard?" -- seeks to fill a "gap in the programming (at the Congress) … for young professionals," said Stephen P. White, executive director of The Catholic Project.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

Click to expand...

Great topic and it is in need of much discussion.

My perspective after having been through dating marriage, annulment and now a radically sanated marriage that cannot be annulled even by the pope, is that modern dating is so hard for Catholics because modern dating is not Catholic.
This is my reasoning.

Catholic dating is about sacrificial love.
Modern dating is about self indulgent love

Catholic dating has the goal of marriage
Modern dating is about “shopping around”

Catholic dating maintains the sanctity of the marital act, which is for the procreation of children.
Modern dating separates procreation from the marital act to encourage testing intercourse with multiple partners to make a choice
Catholic couples know that it is a mortal sin to defile the marital act before marriage, and it is a mortal sin to refuse a reasonable request for the marital act after the sacrament of matrimony. It’s not a game, it’s an obligation

Catholic dating counters the sin of Adam and Eve. Catholic Men follow the command to love there wives and give themselves for them. Catholic women are subject to their husbands as to the Lord.
Modern dating has emasculated men and made self indulgent women the ruler of the date/marriage, which is exactly the sin of Adam and Eve. Modern women complain of the lack of men, while crushing masculinity. Modern men are babies that want their wives to take care of them rather than being provider and caregiver themselves.

The problem in Catholic dating is that many young people are not properly catechized on marriage, or simply don’t believe it. Many people think Catholic dating is supposed to be the fairy tale of what the world promises from the start. Catholics know that the fairy tale comes after much sacrifice emotionally and physically through the bearing of children or the attempt thereof.

Dating should be courting not shopping around. Find a fellow believer and agree to sacrifice for each other as for God. The hierarchy of a Catholic marriage is God, Spouse, Children
Modern marriage has Children, self, spouse, maybe God maybe not as it’s hierarchy


Catholic dating and marriage can be best summed up by my favorite Italian song:
E Qui Commando Io. Read it translate it, listen to it, maybe you will understand.