Witness to Love

In the United States, most parishes offer a marriage preparation program for those seeking this important sacrament and vocation. Witness to Love, which is listed on the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops website for marriage preparation programs, seeks to revolutionize this process. Its goal is to have engaged couples experience the Church not as strangers but as a committed and life-giving family of faith. The engaged couple chooses a mentor couple that meets the basic requirements and becomes an essential part of the catechumenate team as the “trusted” means of communicating what must be revealed about marriage through Jesus to the engaged couple. It is within the trusted relationship between the mentors and the engaged that the marriage remains strong, is formed from love, is strengthened by good catechesis and is nourished by prayers and a sacramental life. Deep conversations, encounters with Christ, and renewal are available consistently for both the mentors and engaged couple.

Witness to Love has been proven to be very effective in preparing couples for marriage and successfully integrating them into their parish. Newly married couples still attend Mass and are active in their parish years after their wedding day. A recent case study found that the full implementation of Witness to Love at a parish in 2012 took the divorce rate from 23% to 0% each year over the next four years.