Partners’ funding aids marriage prep program

BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT

WORCESTER - Nearly 100 engaged couples attended the “God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage” program conducted by the Worcester Diocese Office of Marriage and Family last year.
Such a program wouldn’t be possible without financial support from Partners in Charity.
“It’s very important,” Office of Marriage and Family director Allison LeDoux said at the Chancery. “We couldn’t exist without it.”
Couples are charged $125 to attend the marriage preparation program, but the $50,104 from Partners in Charity accounted for the bulk of the office’s budget last year. 
“By Partners supporting this office,” Mrs. LeDoux said, “they’re helping people prepare for marriage in the Church and that helps them grow in their faith, which should strengthen the family of the future and of the present.”
All engaged couples who plan to marry in a church in the diocese are required to take part in the Office of Marriage and Family’s one-year marriage preparation, including meeting often with their parish priest or deacon.    
Mrs. LeDoux has been director of the Respect Life Office since 2002 and she became director of the Office of Marriage and Family as well in 2008. According to the records she kept from 2010-2022, of the participants in the “God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage” one-day program, 97 percent said they developed a better understanding of the Church’s teaching about marriage and 81 percent said they planned to become more active in their faith.
“Those are the kinds of things that give you the boost to know that we’re on the right track here,” she said.
“God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage,” is based on Pope John Paul II’s reflection on marriage, “Theology of the Body.” The two main themes are that the family is the most vital cell of society, and every life has dignity and value. Mrs. LeDoux said Pope John Paul II wrote 4,000 of the Catholic church’s 6,000 pages on marriage.
Since the pandemic hit, this 6-½-hour program has taken place online, including an hour-long Zoom session with Mrs. LeDoux, followed by videos, in-depth lessons and opportunities for couples to reflect and discuss the content with each other.
Couples have enjoyed the online experience so much, Mrs. LeDoux said she has no plans to resume teaching in-person.
“God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage” covers the sacrament of marriage and the gift of human sexuality.
One of the six sessions is “Natural Family Planning,” also known as fertility awareness, which explains how to successfully build a family.
The couples later take part in the “Engaged Encounter Retreat,” a national curriculum which has also moved online. The retreat teaches everything from developing communication skills among spouses to building a relationship with in-laws. Before and after taking these two formation programs, engaged couples meet with their parish priests or deacons and prepare for their wedding Masses.
“One of the things we always tell the couples is you’re here to help each other get to heaven,” Mrs. LeDoux said.
The office helps couples from throughout the diocese as well as those who live outside the diocese but who plan to marry at their former home parishes and others who missed the program in neighboring dioceses.
“The goal is they’ve embraced this process throughout the year,” Mrs. LeDoux said, “and when it comes to that (wedding) day, which is the start of the rest of their life, hopefully they’ll be equipped to celebrate that and walk with God.”
Some engaged couples come from divorced parents and they wonder if they can enjoy successful marriages.
“This is what we hear from people all the time, ‘Can I do it?’” Mrs. LeDoux said. “Because they know how much it (divorce) hurt them.”
Mrs. LeDoux said she tells such couples they don’t have to make the same mistakes their parents did, that God has a plan for them, their life and their marriage, and to walk with him through those challenges.
“It’s worth the hard work,” she said. “Once they see how beautiful the Church’s vision of marriage is, they can approach the healing they might need from the wounds they grew up with and be able to have a strong foundation in their own life.”
The office also refers married couples and individuals to Catholic counselors upon request.
Mrs. LeDoux said research has also found that couples who take their faith seriously experience longer lasting and successful marriages.
“By getting married in the Church,” Mrs. LeDoux said, “you have the grace of the sacrament so that God is really walking with you on this journey. There are going to be ups and downs for every single person. No one is exempt from the sufferings of life as well as the joys. So we need all the help we can get.”
The Office of Marriage and Family also organizes the diocese’s annual Wedding Anniversary Mass with Bishop McManus at St. Paul Cathedral each fall. Couples of all ages have attended, including those who have been married more than 70 years.
Mrs. LeDoux works closely with Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, who, as judicial vicar for the diocese, oversees canonical affairs.