France: The Importance of Engagement

In the Paris Education Centre on Friday, November 9th, 2018, Marie-Christine Odent, professional marriage and family counselor, launched a new talk series on how important married couples are to society.

Mrs. Odent’s project, put into place by the Women’s Federation for World Peace, is to give a one-hour talk on the importance of married couples in our society and at the end invite participants to participate in a marriage rededication ceremony.

On Friday evening the only guests present were two couples and one widow. A number of members were also present so that the room was full. Marie-Christine spoke of the importance of commitment for a couple. Statistics show that couples who live together, as a test or without marriage, have a much higher rate of separation than couples that marry.

Marriage is a form of commitment that gives a couple time to grow and develop. Without marriage a couple might split after their first difficult moment. Marie-Christine sees the couple as a living entity that needs time to grow and mature and without a commitment couples often don’t give their couple the time necessary to mature and develop.

At the end of her presentation, Brigitte Wada, the President of WFWP France, offered a toast to the importance of couples and our guests could receive the holy juice.

Marie-Christine will now make herself available to members who have contacts with religious communities.