Witness to Love Appointed as Consultants to the Vatican Pope Francis

We are honored to share this exciting news! As National Marriage Week Approaches, a Sign from Rome that Marriage and Family Are of Utmost Priority.

Ryan and Mary Rose Verret, co-founders of Witness to Love, an internationally used model of marriage preparation were appointed on December 16th, 2023, by Pope Francis as consultants to the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, highlighting their dedication and expertise in promoting and strengthening family bonds of marriage within the Catholic Church.

Lafayette, Louisiana 1-11-24 – As the Church prepares to celebrate National Marriage Week February 7-14, this Vatican appointment reinforces the Vatican’s commitment to building Christian Marriage as the vital foundation for a flourishing society. Marriages today need the tools to see life-long marriage lived out with the support of personal witness and accompaniment – both hallmarks of Witness to Love’s marriage formation methodology.

The appointment involves an official consultancy role for the Verrets – and it builds on the global work they have already done. In this role, the Verrets will collaborate with other experts and leaders from around the world to address contemporary challenges facing families, advocate for the sanctity of marriage, and promote the well-being of families within the Church and society.

Recognizing the Verrets’ commitment to the Church’s teachings on family and marriage, the Holy Father has invited the Verrets to contribute their insights and experiences as dicastery consultants to further the Church’s mission of supporting and strengthening families worldwide.

The Verrets are the only North American married couple to be appointed to such a role with the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. To read the Press Release from the Holy See click here.

Witness to Love, has gained widespread recognition for its innovative approach to preparing couples for the sacrament of marriage. The ministry focuses on mentorship, fostering relationships between engaged couples and married mentors to provide guidance and support throughout the marital journey.

“In appointing Ryan and Mary Rose Verret as Consultants to the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, I am confident that their passion for promoting the sanctity of marriage and family life will bring valuable perspectives to the Church’s ongoing efforts,” said Fr. Eric Cadin, Director of the Office of Vocations and the Office of University Ministries for the Archdiocese of Boston and board member of Witness to Love. “Their work with Witness to Love has already had a profound impact on sacramental marriage in the US and Canada, which is the home from which so many of our great Vocations emerge; and, I am eager to see how their dedication will continue to benefit the Church on a global scale.”

Humbled by the surprise appointment, the Verrets are grateful for the appointment. “It is a great honor to be entrusted with this role by Pope Francis,” stated Ryan. “We are committed to serving the Church and contributing to the important work of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life. Witness to Love has been a labor of love for us, and we look forward to extending our efforts to support families and marriages on a broader scale.”

“Witness to Love is a uniquely powerful movement in the Church. Founded by a married couple as they have been raising their young children, it is meeting the needs of engaged couples by mentoring and accompaniment and providing parish priests with the resources they need to help couples who married outside the Church be welcomed back in. This is the Gospel at its best, growing and supporting the Domestic Church. It is heartening that the Vatican has seen the work of Mary Rose and Ryan and recognize how needed it is at this moment in the Church and the world.” – Kathryn Jean Lopez, senior fellow at the National Review Institute and Director of the Center for Religion and Civil Society and religion editor at National Review magazine and board member of Witness to Love.

For media inquiries or to schedule an interview with Ryan and Mary Rose Verret, please contact Jude LeCompte at Jude@witnesstolove.org or 337-282-0446.

Verret’s Bio and additional Info about WTL:

Together Mary Rose and Ryan Verret founded Witness to Love in 2012 as a response to the disconnect they were seeing between engaged and newly married couples in their parish and the divorce rate among newlyweds. What started out as a response to finding a way to accompany couples in one church community, now serves couples and parishes in almost 90 dioceses. Witness to Love is a virtues-based, catechumenate model of marriage renewal and preparation that integrates modern principles of psychology and the virtues to help couples facilitate an authentic dialogue about their relationship.

They are the authors of Witness to Love: How to Help the Next Generation of Marriages Survive and Thrive (2015), publishers and co-authors of The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship: Forming Marriages and Families to Share the Joy of the Gospel (2023), and the creators of “Be Light,” a marriage mystagogy used in 24 countries. In 2021, they co-hosted the 12 episode TV show ‘Family’ with Shalom World. Mary­-Rose is a featured presenter in the series “Doors of Mercy” released by St. Benedict Press for the Year of Mercy.

At the invitation of the Vatican, the Verrets have given presentations at the 2022 World Meeting of Families in Rome and the 2021 International Forum: Where do we stand with Amoris Laetitia? – on the impact of mentor couples in evangelization. They have been interviewed by: Rome Reports, The National Catholic Register, EWTN, OSV News, The Catholic World Report, Catholic News Agency, and Aleteia.

In 2023 they co-hosted the first ever Marriage Catechumenate Summit for North America in Houston, Texas. This historic event is the beginning of a focused movement to renew the Sacrament of Marriage in the United States and beyond.

Today Ryan serves as the President and Co-Founder of Witness to Love and Mary Rose serves as the CEO and Co-Founder of Witness to Love. Together they are international leaders, strategists and collaborators at the service of strengthening marriage which is the foundational starting point of the family, the most vital cell of society and the future of our Church. They are passionate about teaching couples to share their marriage with others and understand their home is a missionary outpost of the local church parish. The Verret’s reside in South Louisiana (USA) with their six children.