Pre-Cana follies

I've said before that I have a low opinion of the usefulness of pre-Cana classes. Considering that Catholics get divorced at the same rate as unchurched people and Protestants the programs don't seem to do much but make money.
 I just read about a 78 year old Lutheran man who wanted to marry an 60 plus year old Catholic woman. They were told that they had to take the pre-Cana class or there could be no wedding and they balked. The wedding took place in the man's Lutheran church. 

On one hand, I suspect that the Lutheran  really didn't want a Catholic wedding anyway and the pre-Cana requirement was a perfect excuse to get out of it, or the couple didn't want to shell out two hundred bucks from their fixed retiree incomes. On the other hand, insisting that an elderly man and a woman long past menopause have to sit through weeks of lectures on natural family planning, budgeting, and the importance of working together is stupid. At their ages this couple surely knows more about the art of living and loving than the instructors and I think I'd much rather sit with them and ask their advice than pay for anything the instructors would have to say.

I used to think the pre-Cana classes in America were the worst but after reading this English blogger's witty comments I guess things are rough all over.