We are a small family, so every occasion is important for me. Thus, we flew all the way to Palm Springs, California to be at my grandnephew’s wedding. Justin is the son of my nephew, Dennis, who had migrated to the USA back in 1990. Before that, Justin was born in Manila on Feb. 29, 1988, and we kid him as being forever young, celebrating his real birthday once every four years.

Nonetheless, Justin is an overachiever, having graduated with a PhD in Neurobiology and is now managing a research laboratory at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He is the first PhD in the family, so this is a point of pride for us. What’s also remarkable is that in this day and age, he is marrying Pia, his high school sweetheart. They have been together since their graduation, and are now finally tying the knot.

It was a beautiful garden wedding at the famous Parker Palm Springs Hotel, attended by family and friends. But prior to this, Justin and Pia had a “church” wedding in Las Vegas, officiated by a female Elvis impersonator. Justin is a lowkey person, so this caught me by surprise. But again, you can never tell what the new generation does nowadays.

The event was “officiated” by Justin’s younger sister, Danielle, who is a rather goofy character, and she had us laughing with her pronouncements during a very short ceremony. She is herself due to be married in July, to another Justin, a Vietnamese American, in Portland. So, we will also plan on being there to celebrate. That will be another tale to tell later on.

That Justin and Pia got married at a late age is no longer surprising nowadays. As part of the Millennial generation, or Gen Y, they are digital natives who were the first to embrace computer technology. They also do not follow the norms we older folks did, thus, do not feel the need to follow traditions, including conventional weddings.

Older folks like us had to have big church weddings and have children as soon as possible. Millennials and the younger generations, Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta would rather have small, intimate weddings that may not include religious ceremonies, or no weddings at all, preferring to just live together and have small families, if ever they have children.

This poses a challenge for churches. Church attendance, especially in Western countries, are experiencing massive drops, with most churches empty of worshippers or having small congregations.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines is likewise facing an attendance crisis, with fewer practicing Catholics, some of whom prefer to attend online masses, especially during the pandemic and after. While many parishes still have standing room only masses, some are facing financial difficulties with low parishioner contributions.

A Social Weather Stations survey showed that only 38 percent of Filipino Catholics attend mass weekly, compared to 80 percent of Iglesia ni Cristo, 60 percent for other Christian groups and 71 percent for Muslims.

Yet, we still see massive attendance in religious celebrations like the Black Nazarene procession, and Ash Wednesday where people profess their faith by being anointed with ashes on their foreheads. The Black Nazarene procession has become a massive display of folk Catholicism with a mixture of fanaticism and folk superstition.

Holy Week is now mostly celebrated by flying off to faraway destinations, treating it as a chance to go on holiday. Many Catholics are now only Catholic in name, having abandoned Sunday masses for weekend getaways.

As more and more people opt to forego religious celebrations, weddings will become non-religious events. Church leaders say the advent of social media has a lot to do with this phenomenon, which draws away people from in-person attendance in social and religious events.

This is a complex issue that will need more in-depth analysis and problem-solving. But life goes on, with or without the religious aspect, as the world becomes more secular.

It is also a population problem, since many couples will have few or no children,leading to a demographic winter. Japan and many Western countries are experiencing this, with the consequent surge in migration resulting in conflict between the natives and the migrants, legal and not. This issue is now front and center in the USA where immigrants are now the targets of removal by law enforcement agencies.

We don’t know if Danielle will have a church wedding, since her fiance is a Catholic as well. Nonetheless, we will be celebrating with her on her personal milestone in July. As a small family, we intend to be as close-knit as possible, despite the distance that separates us.

My only wish is for her to have children to continue the lineage and for me to have great-grandnephews and nieces to spoil.