OFWs in Kuwait warned against adultery

MANILA, Philippines—The Catholic Bishop of Kuwait has warned Filipinos in the Middle Eastern country to be faithful to the spouses they left behind in their homeland or risk being barred from receiving communion.

Bishop Camilo Ballin, the Apostolic Vicar Bishop of the Catholic Church in Kuwait, said he has noticed that many Filipinos tend to have another family in Kuwait even though they are still very much married to their spouses in the Philippines.

“There are cases, I just cannot say how many, when men are supposed to send money to his family back home in the Philippines but he has to keep some money for his other family in Kuwait,” he said in a report posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Ballin swung by Manila recently after attending the World Youth Day in Sydney last month.

The prelate, a native of Italy, said the situation has come to a point where he had to explain to some Kuwait-based Filipinos the Church’s regulations on marriage.

Ballin said those who are divorced or who have remarried without the Church annulling their previous marriage can be sanctioned.

He reminded overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait that they could be prevented from taking communion during Mass if they are unfaithful to their wives and husbands back in their homeland.

“What I try to stress is that they can enter the Church but they cannot receive Holy Communion,” the bishop said.

“I don’t want them to feel I sent them away from the Church so they are allowed to come to pray, attend Mass but cannot receive communion although they can participate in prayer meetings, social meetings especially on feasts days but definitely no communion,” he noted.

Ballin said he understands that couples and families sacrifice a lot when a spouse goes to work abroad. Having come from a poor family in Italy, Ballin said the phenomenon is not new to him.

“I understand Filipinos come to Kuwait to provide a better future for their family in the Philippines but please, if possible, for couples, don’t separate because the risk is too much and the risks include the possibility of having another family,” he added.

Catholics number around 350,000 in the Islamic state, almost half of it are Filipinos. Ballin said the Filipino community in Kuwait is active, with at least 10 Catholic lay and pastoral groups operating in his vicariate. - Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 31, 2008