Online dating has become the "new normal" among young people, according to a Catholic priest. He said the Church can help counter the modern pressure to find the "perfect" date.
Father Tim Byron SJ, of the Jesuit Institute in London, which offers training and resources for schools, said he worked alongside young people and he had seen how online dating had become standard for nearly all. .
There were many good aspects to this. There are Catholic and other dating sites for Christians seeking a partner. "In that sense they can make a much more informed decision when starting to look for someone to spend the rest of their life with. But there are all sorts of pitfalls." One is that, with the sense of a whole world to choose from, they were no longer willing to make the compromises people used to take for granted were necessary.
He also noticed how expectations were high. "There is pressure on them to have a perfect relationship, go to a perfect restaurant, take perfect photos of the food and send the photos off to people. It is all about projecting the perfect lifestyle. The more the Church can do to counter this, the better."
He was speaking to The Tablet on the eve of the Feast of Saint Valentine, celebrated on Thursday 14 February.
In Ireland, a bishop blessed an engaged couple at the shrine of the holy relics of Saint Valentine in Dublin city.
Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin and president of Accord Catholic Marriage Care Service CLG, blessed Emer Duffy from Rathfarnham, Dublin and Killian Casey from Ballyboden, Rathfarnham, Dublin, both aged 16. Emer works for Microsoft Ireland and Killian works as a partner solutions engineer for Dell EMC. They will be married in 2020 in the Church of the Annunciation in Rathfarnham, Archdiocese of Dublin.
The blessing too place at the Shrine of the holy relics of Saint Valentine in the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Whitefriar Street, Archdiocese of Dublin at midday today.
Latest returns by Accord show that 16,048 individuals attended its marriage preparation courses across the island of Ireland in 2018.
The couple were blessed at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Dublin where relics of Saint Valentine are interred. Saint Valentine, a priest in ancient Rome, is regarded as the patron saint of couples in love, preparing for marriage and of married life. According to tradition, he was martyred on 14 February 250 AD. In 1836 relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, near Rome, were identified as Saint Valentine’s. These relics were placed in a casket, donated by Pope Gregory XVI, and transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin where they continue to be venerated by the faithful to this day.
Three years ago, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales published a novena for those seeking a spouse:
Loving Father,
You know that the deepest desire of my heart is to meet someone that I can share my life with.
I trust in your loving plan for me and ask that I might meet soon the person that you have prepared for me.
Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open my heart and mind so that I recognise my soulmate.
Remove any obstacles that may be in the way of this happy encounter,
So that I might find a new sense of wholeness, joy and peace.
Give me the grace too, to know and accept, if you have another plan for my life.
I surrender my past, present and future into the tender heart of your Son, Jesus,
Confident that my prayer will be heard and answered.
Amen.Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
St Valentine, pray for me.
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