How about Advanced Preparation for Marriage?

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Augustinian

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Instead of waiting until someone is engaged to give them sacramental instructions, why not just give every Catholic Marriage Preparation classes in high school or during RCIA classes if they are converts?

The church would be able to move the weddings right through a lot quicker, attending classes while an adult can be difficult with all of the other adult responsibilities people have.

I was watching a video on the internet earlier “Brideless Groom”, where the protagonist’s Uncle Caleb just passed and he had to get married within 48 hours of the reading of the will or forfeit his inheritance.

Of course, Shemp Howard isn’t Catholic, but he would have had no chance to receive the $500,000 legacy.

Giving the people marriage lessons in advance would prevent this kind of thing
 
The dilemma has two aspects:
  1. Poor Catholic education, many Catholics don’t understand their faith and also may not know you usually only get married once and divorce isn’t a thing.
  2. Marriage prep needs to have the actual parties marrying, because the course will be different depending on who your partner is.
 
Agreed. Our prep was well tailored towards our situation.

Also, I was not Catholic at the time of our marriage and had not started RCIA yet. So under this system, I wouldn’t have had any prep.
 
I mean it’s a nice idea but considering how little people retain from their ‘Catholic’ education as it stands I don’t think it would implement well.

Plus, I don’t think rushing a marriage is ever good. I honestly think the Church putting the brakes on is good and makes a couple cool their heels a bit before making a lifelong commitment.

In this day and age where divorce is seen as no more serious than getting a coffee… I’d say rushing into Catholic marriages would be bad, bad, bad.
 
Augustinian said:
Instead of waiting until someone is engaged to give them sacramental instructions, why not just give every Catholic Marriage Preparation classes in high school or during RCIA classes if they are converts?
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Because marriage prep is specific to the couple(s) involved. Ans some topics in marriage prep aren’t really necessary or prudent to discuss with high school students.
Augustinian said:
The church would be able to move the weddings right through a lot quicker, attending classes while an adult can be difficult with all of the other adult responsibilities people have.
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I don’t think the Church should be trying to move these things through more quickly.
 
Catholic preparation is supposed to be life-long, beginning in the [Catholic] family. Of course, “supposed to be” covers many things that in fact are not. Such as Catholic formation in the Catholic Faith.
 
Moving weddings through more quickly is not something that should be encouraged. Christian marriage is a lifelong commitment, not something to be rushed into.
 
Augustinian said:
Instead of waiting until someone is engaged to give them sacramental instructions, why not just give every Catholic Marriage Preparation classes in high school or during RCIA classes if they are converts?
Click to expand...
We were required to take a semester-long course on Marriage at my Catholic girls’ high school. I’m sure other high schools may have a similar course requirement already.

The course that my husband and I had to take to meet our Pre-Cana requirement took one weekend and was at a beautiful monastery, so it was basically a weekend getaway for us and didn’t take up a ton of time. Nor would the marriage have moved along any faster if we hadn’t taken that course, because it takes several months to not only get a reservation in place for the church, but also reserve or pick out and order all the secular things needed for a wedding and make all the arrangements for the family visitors.

Edited to add, I don’t see much point to moving a marriage through more quickly, either. You’re going to be with the person your whole life. A few weeks or months of prep is not a big deal. If anyone was in that much of a hurry to get married, unless they were shipping out with the military or terminally ill (in either case I’m sure the priest could arrange to speed it up), I’d think they were weird.
 
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Augustinian said:
why not just give every Catholic Marriage Preparation classes in high school or during RCIA classes if they are converts?
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We do give remote preparation for marriage during catechesis in religious education classes and RCIA.

Proximate preparation happens between the actual couple getting married, and that takes place with the pastor during a reasonable time period directly before marriage.

There are two kinds of preparation, and the Church addresses both.
 
I was going to mention that Catholic high schools used to have marriage classes. Not sure if they still do. That was back in the days when many Catholics married by age 21-22. (And most of those actually stayed married and faithful.)
 
Augustinian said:
I was watching a video on the internet earlier “Brideless Groom”, where the protagonist’s Uncle Caleb just passed and he had to get married within 48 hours of the reading of the will or forfeit his inheritance.
Click to expand...
The Church’s concern is with valid sacraments, not with nonsensical fictional stories and romance tropes.
 
Pretty sure there is no “marriage class” anymore in Catholic high school.

I had trouble at my parish last year just teaching the Catholic teaching of marriage and sexual morality to high school Confirmation candidates because the parents were in an uproar over the topic.

Far too many people don’t understand what the Church actually teaches and sadly many just don’t care.
 
As I recall, the course was taught by a very no-nonsense Sister and was not heavily religious.
It was very practical stuff, and a pretty good course.
The same Sister taught an elective on Death and Dying that was also very practical and a big help to me when I had to go make arrangements for my parents’ funerals and interments.
 
Ummmmm what Highschool kids are ready for Marriage prep? Very very very few! The adult brain doesn’t fully develop until about 25! People change so much between their teens, and actual adulthood!
I am not saying we should not address sexuality and moral living. But the actual prep, no.
 
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Kathleen18 said:
Ummmmm what Highschool kids are ready for Marriage prep? Very very very few! The adult brain doesn’t fully develop until about 25! People change so much between their teens, and actual adulthood!
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You are a legal adult at age 18 in USA, when you graduate high school. Some people do get married or engaged or are at least entertaining the thought well before they are age 25, especially if they are anxious to start a family while young, or perhaps already inadvertently started one.

Sorry but if you’re old enough to fight in wars, vote and go to adult prison, you’re old enough to learn a few things about marriage.
 
I agree. But I don’t think some kids are ready for marriage at that age.
 
Some are and some aren’t. I personally wasn’t interested in getting married at age 18. My 19-year-old boyfriend, on the other hand, was in a huge rush to get married and in fact did get married (to someone else) by the time he was 21, and by the time he was 30 had three kids.

Saying that they shouldn’t at least start learning about it does not make sense though. It just might make a few of the more starry-eyed ones realize they aren’t quite ready for the responsibilities yet.
 
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I agree with your posts. Even those Catholics who never got married would have a better understanding of the Church’s teachings.
Education is a good thing.
 
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