“The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” [CCC 1601]

Marriage preparation is to begin 9-12 months before the wedding day.  Please contact the pastor so that all preparations can be completed in time for the wedding and marriage.
   

Marriage Preparation in the Roman Catholic Church

 

1.      All Catholics are required to have their wedding vows take place in the presence of one of the persons’ bishop or one of the persons’ pastor or deacon, and in the presence of two witnesses.  For a wedding to take place in the presence of a minister other than the persons’ Catholic bishop, pastor, or deacon, or in a non-Catholic church building proper permission from one of the persons’ bishop is required.

2.      The wedding is to take place in the parish where either the Catholic groom or the Catholic bride resides or is a registered member.  For a wedding to take place in another parish, the permission of one of the persons’ pastors is required.

3.      For a Catholic person to marry a person of a different faith (Christian or non-Christian), proper permission from the Catholic person’s bishop is required.

4.      Preparation is to be done in the parish where either the Catholic groom or the Catholic bride resides or is a registered member.  For preparation to be done by any other parish, permission of one of the persons’ pastors is required.

5.      Preparation is to be done according to the particular law of the Diocese in which one or both persons reside.  (i.e. the Diocese of Sioux City requires at least nine [9] months of preparation before the wedding ceremony that includes meetings with the pastor and completion of Walking in Love, Called to the Wedding Feast, and NFP classes).  This preparation ensures that the couple is free, ready, and able to commit themselves to the holy bonds of Sacred Matrimony.  The persons preparing the couple have the right to delay the celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony until the couple demonstrates readiness and capability that includes proper understanding of the commitment they plan to enter.  Time is also needed to allow for the proper permissions to be granted, especially when persons live in another Diocese or another parish and plan to be married in a parish they are not members of.  Extra preparation is required for persons:  (a) entering a second marriage after the death of the first spouse or declaration of the invalidity of the first marriage by a Church Tribunal, (b) who are cohabitating, and (c) due to other circumstances (i.e. pre-marital pregnancy, marriage attempted in violation of the Church’s teaching of marriage, etc.).

6.      If possible, Catholics should be, but do not need to be, Confirmed before entering into marriage.

7.      Catholics who enter a marriage without the proper preparation risk entering an invalid marriage and being denied Holy Communion until such a time the union is recognized by the Church.

8.      For more information, please contact your parish priest.

 

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is approved by the Catholic Church as a morally sound way of achieving and avoiding pregnancy in the appropriate circumstances. Natural Family Planning refers to a group of family planning methods that are based on fertility signs of a woman’s body. Various methods teach couples how to use these observations to interpret the woman’s cycle and know when she is most likely to conceive, thus providing them with the opportunity to either achieve or avoid pregnancy.  Because the well-known “Calendar Rhythm Method” does not take each particular woman’s cycle into consideration, modern Natural Family Planning cannot be compared to this more primitive method.

The Catholic Church teaches that a married couple may use the various forms of Natural Family Planning as they determine and plan for their family size (Humanae Vitae 16). The spouses must turn toward God in prayer and use the virtue of prudence as they practice responsible parenthood, “With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time” (Humanae Vitae 10). When practicing responsible parenthood, the spouses must remember that the Church considers children as the primary blessing of marriage and that they must reflect on their motivations so that they are not inclined to selfishness (CCC 1652, 2368).

While NFP and contraception are both used to avoid conception, they have fundamental differences. When contraception obstructs a woman’s cycle or the act of intercourse, it intentionally uses a natural biological process in an unnatural way. This means that by impeding the woman’s natural cycle and the natural end of the sexual act, a couple acts against the way in which God created human beings. It is important to note that fertility is not an illness that must be treated. A couple using NFP to interpret the signs of a woman’s cycle works in harmony with natural biological processes and simply abstain from intercourse during fertile periods and engage in intercourse during infertile times in order to avoid pregnancy.  Although contraception is always sinful, methods of NFP can be used in sinful ways. When a couple uses NFP to avoid conception without a serious reason to avoid children, they do so with a contraceptive mentality. This is an improper use of the science of NFP.

Natural Family Planning offers many benefits to married couples. First of all, and most importantly, NFP allows couples to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding spousal love and the gift of children. While artificial contraceptives have many side effects including depression, allergic reactions, acne, weight gain, nausea, headaches, infertility, increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, and heart attack, NFP does not have any of these side effects. By learning about the woman’s cycle, the couple becomes more conscious of the way she is created and can easily be made aware of any irregularities with the woman’s cycle that may lead to health concerns. NFP, which has a 97-99% effectiveness, gives couples the information they need to more fully understand a woman’s fertility in order to effectively plan for their family. Finally, married couples who use NFP have a 95% success rate of having loving and lasting marriages.

Remember, a wedding is just a day,
a marriage is a Lifetime!