Parishioners will help prepare couples for marriage under new process

The Bishops’ conference of England and Wales has released its first set of guidelines for marriage preparation in the Catholic Church, writes Liz Dodd.

The new guidelines, which were influenced by the Pope’s exhortation on marriage and family life, Amoris Laetitia, emphasise a pattern of marriage preparation that involves a couple’s whole parish.

“It’s not enough for it to be a quiet, private affair where you meet with the priest and go through Canon Law,” said Elizabeth Davies, director of volunteer recruitment, training and formation at the charity Marriage Care, who previously worked at the Bishops’ Conference on the guidelines. “It has to involve lay people.” That involvement, she explained, could include the couple being mentored by married parishioners, being prayed for by the parish, or having the parish involved in preparing the church for the wedding ceremony itself.

Ms Davies said that the new process offered a chance to reconnect with Catholics who had lapsed or stopped attending Mass after Confirmation. “Marriage preparation is often the first time we see young people so providers are [also] evangelisers,” she said.

Six years in the making, the guidelines include a session on “special circumstances”, such as entering into a second marriage, or marrying someone from a different denomination or religion.

Ms Davies said the new process was inspired by the preparation offered to candidates in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, through which a person is received into the Church supported and guided by the parish community.