Making Good Marriages Better!!!!

o Worldwide Marriage Encounter is a movement in the Catholic Church aimed at revitalizing Christian Marriage. It is the largest and longest-lived pro-marriage movement in the world and is active in 92 countries. Recently WWME celebrated its 28th anniversary in the U.S.

o Currently, 15,000 couples/year attend a WWME Weekend in the U.S. Overall, 2,000,000 couples have attended a U.S. WWME Weekend in the last 28 years, with 5,000,000 more couples attending Weekends in other countries during the same time period.

o The Weekend is Catholic in orientation and is expressed in the traditions and understanding of the Catholic Church. However, it is open to all faith expressions and ~30% of the spaces on each Weekend are reserved for non-Catholics.

o In addition to the Catholic experience of the WWME Weekend, eleven other denominations also conduct WWME Weekends: Lutheran, United Methodist, Baptist, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Reformed, Seventh Day Adventists, Orthodox, Mennonite and United Church of Canada.

o One of the key elements of WWME is continued support after the Weekend. The experience of the Weekend is meant to last a lifetime, but living God's Plan is quite often in direct opposition to living the World's plan. Continued support of other encountered couples and priests is encouraged and fostered through small sharing groups and community events designed to keep the couples "centered on Christ and focused on each other."

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The Marriage Encounter weekend is a positive and personal experience offering married couples an opportunity to learn a technique of loving communication that they can use for the rest of their lives. It's a chance to look deeply into their relationship with each other and with God. It's a time to share their feelings, hopes and dreams with each other.

The emphasis of the Marriage Encounter weekend is on the communication between husbands and wives. The weekend provides a conducive environment for couples to spend time together, away from the distractions and tensions of everyday life, while encouraging them to focus on each other and their relationship.

It's not a retreat, marriage clinic, group sensitivity, or a substitute for counseling. It's a unique approach aimed at revitalizing Marriage.

This is a time for you and your spouse to be alone together, to rediscover each other and together focus on your relationship for an entire weekend. Every marriage deserves that kind of attention!

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Any married couple who desires a richer fuller life together.   A marriage can never be too good.  Marriage Encounter is designed to deepen and enrich the joys a couple shares together, whether they have been married for only a short time, or many years.  Marriage Encounter also provides support and encouragement to priests and religious who are dedicated to their vocation in life.

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The weekend is Catholic in orientation and is expressed in the tradition and understanding of the Catholic Church.  It is open to all, and so a certain number of spaces are reserved each weekend for couples of other faiths.

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A series of presentation are given by a team of Catholic couples and a Catholic Priest.  Each presentation allows you and your spouse a rare opportunity to look at yourselves as individuals, then to look at your marriage and your relationship to one another, and finally to look at your relationship to God, the Church and the world.   The weekend starts at 8:00 PM on Friday night and runs until about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon.

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YES.  The weekend is oriented strictly to each individual couple.  You concentrate on your spouse to such an extent that you are hardly aware of the other couples present.  The presentations are given to the group as a whole.   After each presentation, the husband and wife have time in the privacy of their room for their own personal discussion.

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The encounter weekend teaches a communication technique which permits each couple to explore important areas of their relationship in a spirit of love and understanding.  By continuing the newly acquired technique begun on the weekend, husbands and wives continually grow closer together to live more joyful and purposeful lives. While not an essential part of the experience, the availability of a community of others who have shared the Weekend and who share similar values provides a supportive environment for even further growth.

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A $50 NON-REFUNDABLE REGISTRATION FEE confirms your reservations, food and lodging.  There is limited capacity,so early registration is encouraged.  At the end of the weekend each couple is given a blank envelope and asked to make a donation.  No one is ever refused the opportunity to make a weekend because of the lack of funds.

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o The divorce rate among couples attending a WWME Weekend is just 2% vs. the >50% national average!

o The WWME experience not only benefits the couple and their sacrament, but also has positive effects on family communications and parenting.

o In addition to improved spousal communication, the WWME experience positively influences a couple's spirituality and religious practice in both the short and long term, with over 70% of the couples making the Weekend reporting a greater openness to God and prayer, even years later.

o A significant number of couples making the WWME Weekend become more involved in their parish in lay leadership roles and liturgical ministries.

o Less than 15% of the couples making a WWME Weekend rated their marriage as excellent before the Weekend, but nearly 65% rated their marriage excellent after the Weekend, a 400% increase.

o Over 90% of the couples making the WWME Weekend consider it "very good" to "excellent."

o More than 80% of the couples making the WWME Weekend said that even years later, their experience continues to have a significant impact on intimacy and closeness in their marriage.

From a survey (1989-91) conducted by The National Institute for the Family, 3OI9 4th St., NE, Washington, D.C.

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Bishop Robert J. Rose, Dioccse of Grand Rapids

"For more than two decades WWME has been and continues to be one of our most effective apostolates in ministering to the needs of married couples." and "The WWME Weekend is not only designed to strengthen the Sacrament of Matrimony, but Holy Orders as well. Priests are a vital part of Marriage Encounter."

Fr. Chuck Gallagher. S.J., original organizer of WWME in the U.S.
"This Weekend experience is not just about marriage. It is a whole faith experience. People deepen their faith."

Bishop Paul Dudley (retired), past Episcopal Moderator for WWME
"Through the centuries, the Holy Spirit blessed our church with many movements or programs to make Christ "more real" in the lives of God's people surely, WWME is such a gift! May more and more couples and priests enrich their relationship with each other and their Church through WWME."

Dr Jame Dobson, Christian psychologist and host of the radio program, "Focus on the Family", aired on 1700 radio stations in America.
"WWME gave Shirley and me the opportunity to occasion the deepest, most intimate exchange of feelings we had known in 20 years... It proved to be one of the highlights of my life. I just wish that everyone who trusts my opinion would now accept this advice: Attend a WWME Weekend at the earliest opportunity."

Fr. Tim Nolan, Church of St. Paul, Ham Lake, MN.
"I have not only a deeper appreciation of my priesthood as a result of the Weekend, but also a deeper understanding of Gods Plan for Christian marriage. A bright hope has entered my heart for the Church, as I see God building the new culture of love through the restoration of spousal love in married couples."

Fr. Bob Neenan. S.J., Minneapolis, MN.
"For over 18 years, married (encountered) couples around me have helped me to appreciate their intimate relationship as a couple and to work on increasing our closeness as couple and priest in the Church."

William Cardinal Keeler, Archdiocese of Baltimore.
"I am delighted to recommend the WWME Weekend as a special time of grace for husbands and wives to build communication and understanding and to deepen their love for one another in marital spirituality. When, in our society six out of ten new marriages are failing, WWME is a powerful tool to strengthen marriage and help couples live out their vocation"

Archbishop Harry J. Flynn. D.D., Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis
"I am very deeply grateful for the presence of WWME within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Because we live in a society in which the stability of lifelong sacramental marriage is daily challenged, there is an especially great need for programs such as WWME. By taking the time necessary to communicate more deeply, couples are guided to a better understanding of normal tensions and ways to handle them. Through that process they also come to a renewed appreciation of each other and of that convenant relationship into which they have entered."

Michael McManus, author of the book Marriage Savers
"In the spring of 1976, Harriet and I experienced a weekend retreat that literally changed our lives. After a decade of marriage, we fell back in love with one another but at a far more profound level than anything we had experienced before. The impact of the weekend has been permanent because we learned a new form of soul-to-soul communication that has deepened and enriched each day of our marriage in the seventeen years since... WWME is the best marriage saver."

Pope John Paul II
"I place much of my hope for the future in Marriage Encounter."

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Last Updated: November 08, 2004