Witness to Love launches ‘Hybrid Experience,’ combining their proven model with online coaching
The Hybrid Experience integrates Witness to Love’s proven virtues-based marriage formation with online coaching for a comprehensive experience for engaged and civilly-married couples and their chosen mentors. For inquiries or interview requests, email connect@witnesstolove.org.
Lafayette, LA, 8/26/2024– Witness to Love is thrilled to announce the Hybrid Experience as an alternative way to go through their proven marriage prep program. Witness to Love has been training parishes and dioceses in their unique mentorship model for over 12 years. Although they count with the partnership of over 500 parishes across 80 dioceses in North America, there’s a crucial need for better formation for couples that may not be associated with a WTL parish (or any parish) or those seeking online options.
As well documented studies have shown, only 18% of churches in America invest in marriage ministry. In parishes where there isn’t a vested interest in marriage formation and support, couples seeking to be married in the Church, especially those in special circumstances, are often given the option to complete an online marriage prep program. This may be a convenient way to cover all the “necessary topics” but is devoid of authentic relationship and a connection to the parish.
All Church documents on the subject of marriage in the last 50 years have called for marriage formation that is not only informative, but transformative. The recent Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life by the Dicastery of Laity, Family and Life echoes what recent popes have called for, that “The Church must go beyond a type of formation which is solely intellectual, theoretical, and general (i.e. religious literacy) when engaging with those who intend to marry. We need to walk with them along a path that leads to an encounter with Christ…” (Par. 5)
There is no other online marriage prep program out there that is offering real accompaniment for couples when they need it most. Young adults are increasingly becoming disaffiliated or considered “nones” and those couples that may come back to the Church for the beauty of a Catholic wedding often have no connection to a parish community. “Yet, in the marriage prep world, so many are content to just make glossier pamphlets, and higher quality videos wanting to convey the timeless truths of sacramental marriage, but not actually connecting couples to living witnesses of what that married love looks like,” states Mary Rose Verret, co-founder of Witness to Love. The WTL Hybrid Experience allows couples to have both the flexibility of online formation and the needed accompaniment of mentors they know and admire, all with live support and connection to their parish by trained WTL Coaches.
A growing number of young Catholics are engaging with the Church beyond the parish, such as through campus ministries, so relying solely on online videos for their marriage preparation would be counterproductive. Rev. J. Patrick Hough, S.J., director of Grand Coteau Retreats states that, “As an educator and a retreat center director I needed a solid, authentically Catholic marriage preparation option for my engaged couples. Even though I am not a parish priest I know couples need to remain rooted in the sacramental and communal life of the Church. Sending them to online marriage preparation was not an option but given the fact that the couples I prepare live in other states I had to find a creative solution. Witness to Love's Hybrid Experience has been seamless and a beautiful way to prepare well the couples whose marriages I have been blessed to witness.”
Fr. Rene Pellessier, LT, CHC, USN, a Navy chaplain shares that, "After four years of serving in the Navy as a Chaplain, I can say that there is no better marriage preparation program for me than Witness to Love. All too often I have found myself preparing couples for marriage with little to no local resources. Witness to Love fills this gap, granting me the assurance that America's servicemen and women are receiving premium preparation even in less than ideal circumstances."
Whatever the circumstances couples face, parishes, ministries, and all those vested in the future of the Church can now offer a flexible alternative that doesn’t compromise the quality and care that couples deserve as they prepare for a life-long covenant.
For inquiries or interview requests, email connect@witnesstolove.org.