Thanks for Clarence Page’s perceptive column on marriage (“Happily ever after,” Op-Ed, Aug. 20). Covenant marriages aside for the moment, what made the most sense to me was his emphasis on the need `to know what you are getting into.”
The Roman Catholic Church, which believes all marriages are intended to last for a lifetime, has long required participation in marriage-preparation programs. Here in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Cana Conference has been offering marriage-preparation and marriage-enrichment programs for more than 50 years.
One of the best of the many fine marriage-preparation programs the archdiocese offers is the Discovery Weekend. This program takes a full weekend away from work, television, telephone and family pressures and allows the engaged couple to focus on each other and their relationship. The weekend is led by trained volunteer married couples who share their own stories, both tragic and triumphant, with the engaged couples as an integral part of the program.
Couples who have made Discovery Weekends are equipped to fully invest themselves in their marriage if they so choose. They have been taught communication skills that will work for them throughout their lives, and they have heard stories of “what it is really like.” They are encouraged to use the communication skills and dialoguing techniques they have learned throughout the remainder of their engagement. From that moment, the responsibility is theirs. It’s our hope that the information serves them well.
