Catholic Weddings

Advice on Pre-Cana?

Hi ladies - I lurk but you all give such wonderful advice, I hope you can help me because I'm feeling totally lost.

Background - FI and I are being maurried in his family's church. However, the church gave the OK for us to be married there but for our priest from college Catholic Campus Ministry to do the ceremony, since we have a close relationship with him. Originally, the plan was to do pre-Cana with him, and the church okay'd that.

I spoke with our priest last week and it turns out that we can't do pre-cana with him after all - his home parish doesn't have any resources for pre-cana anymore (it's a small and overall elderly parish). He simply suggested we try local parishes (and warned us away from one that he said has had issues for other people he knows in the past).

So - any suggestions on what to do? Engaged Encounter? Through a parish? Which classes, if any, to take? I feel like the archdiocese page for our area is overwhelming, with lots of columns of options, and I'm not sure what would be best for us (young, living at our respective parents' homes, busy as first year teachers). Any advice? With under 10 months to the wedding we need to get started on this ...
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Re: Advice on Pre-Cana?

  • Does he mean he'll still do your marriage prep, but that he wants you to sign up for Engaged Encounter on your own, or does he mean he wants you to go through another priest at another parish for all your marriage prep?  I'd clarify that with him, but my guess is that you'll need to go through another priest so that he can ask the questions, have you do FOCCUS, etc., besides just Engaged Enounter.  Hope this helps at least a little...

     

  • I think you should just do the pre-cana requirements with the priest of your FI's family parish.

    Now, I certainly understand it may not be convenient, but it's probably best.

    You would probably have between 1-5 meetings and 1 weekend of an engaged enrichment or encounter.

    The meetings could occur after Mass on Sunday so you wouldn't have to take off from work during the week.
  • Ah, see, now it makes more sense! From the way the website is set up, it made it look like the Engaged Encounter weekend took the place of everything else and got everything done in one weekend. It's very confusing, especially when I don't know anyone else who's had a Catholic wedding in the last 25+ years ...

    The priest we met with at FI's church did talk to us about pre-cana but basically assumed that we would be doing it with our priest, so we went with that option. I'll give the church office a call tomorrow and see about coming in to see him this weekend. FI's church is actually closer then our priest's parish, we just wanted to work with him since he knows us so well.  THank you so much for the help, ladies! I'm really looking forward to the pre-cana process. Anything in particular we can expect/you and your FI/H felt was really good about it?
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  • Welcome and congrats! I encourage you to post more!

    Talk to a priest or someone at the parish!!!!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Marriage prep requirements can vary greatly from diocese to diocese and among parishes. I would contact your FI's parish and do whatever is required through/with/for them just to simplify the process. 10 months should be plenty of time to take care of stuff.

    Also, whether or not you have to, I would encourage you to take a full course on NFP! :)

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  • [QUOTE]Also, whether or not you have to, I would encourage you to take a full course on NFP! :)
    Posted by bibliophile2010[/QUOTE]
    yes, this! (whatever course you end up taking, they might give a 30 minute intro to NFP, but it's really not enough to learn anything useful.)
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