The Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life has prepared a new document “that offers pastors, spouses, and all those who work in the pastoral care of the family, a vision and a renewed methodology of preparation for the sacrament of marriage and for all married life, in all the stages of the sacramental journey: the times of preparation for marriage, its celebration and subsequent years, especially when the spouses could go through crises and moments of discouragement.”

“The concern of the Dicastery,” according to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect, “is to transmit to bishops, family pastoral workers and formators, the Holy Father’s invitation to seriously rethink marriage preparation as a continuous accompaniment before and after the sacramental rite [with] competent and concrete closeness, made up of bonds between families that support each other.”

The document “Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life” is available digitally in various languages, published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

This day-long event is an opportunity to discuss ways to usher in the new catechumenal model of marriage preparation as proposed by the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life in their document “Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life.”

We are gathering priests, deacons, laypeople; marriage ministry coordinators and presenters, young adults, faith formation leaders, and others from a representative cross section of our diocese to discuss effective ways for bringing this new vision to fulfillment for marriages in the Church here in our Diocese of Orange.

This is a collaborative working event in which everyone will be asked to contribute. The commitment we are asking of summit participants is to:

• pray with and read the Vatican document “Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life”,
• reflect on it in the context of your ministry,
• prepare to work at the summit on Feb. 15, 2025,
• represent your peers at the summit, and
• bring the summit outcomes to your peers/ministry after the event.

To spiritually prepare, summit participants are invited to a special Mass on Friday, February 7 in our new St. Callistus Chapel. We will start a Novena for our summit and National Marriage Week that day.

• The document “Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life” is available digitally in various languages, published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
• The Diocese of Orange Office for Family Life drafted this preview summary of the Vatican document for our local leaders and summit participants.
• Watch Fr. Tim Donovan’s video about the catechumenate model of formation in general – link here
• Watch this presentation on the document by Gabriella Gambino (Under-Secretary for the Dicastery of Laity, Family, and Life) at the World Meeting of Families 2022 – link here
• Gabriella Gambino has also provided this article which summarizes and explains the inspiration for the writing of the Vatican document.
• Special Report on Marriage by the National Catholic Register, February 7-14, 2025

• What is the Marriage Catechumenate?: Dr. Elizabeth Reichert STD, St. John’s Seminary
• Part 1 on Pre-catechumenal “Remote” Preparation: Fr. Tim Donovan, Faith & Family Life Catholic Ministries
• Part 2 on Pre-catechumenal “Proximate” Preparation: Cecilia Phan and Mayra Encinas, Diocese of Orange
• Part 3 on Catechumenal “Immediate” Preparation: Tony Nguyen LMFT
• Part 4 on Mystagogy: Fr. Juan Bernardo Navarro, Christ Cathedral Parish