Information and Training for Parish Leaders

The Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan expresses the desire that every parish develops or continues sacramental preparation, including marriage. Couples preparing for marriage, whether practicing their faith or returning to the church for the sacrament, can benefit from adult faith formation focused on the sacramentality of marriage and critical life skills for marriage and family life. 

In late October 2019, Cardinal Collins approved five widely recognized marriage preparation programs for use based on a shared set of new standards for theological and pastoral instruction.  One of these programs, Joy-Filled Marriage from Ascension Press, has been selected for use in all of Catholic Family Services of Toronto's marriage preparation programs. 

The other four vetted programs include Witness to Love; Beloved; Transformed in Love; and Catholicmarriageprepclass.com, which is specifically for couples who cannot currently attend a formation program together in the same city. For a description of these programs, please see our list of resources.

If you have any questions regarding these programs, or if you are currently using a program that is not listed above that you would like to continue to use, please contact the Office of Formation for Discipleship. It is important that any program employed is aligned to the new standards for theological and pastoral instruction.

Upcoming Training for Joy-Filled Marriage

We are sponsoring training sessions to assist parish leaders with using the marriage preparation program, Joy-Filled Marriage. There is no cost to participants for the training and materials, but registration will be required.

Tom McCabe, co-author of the program, will lead the sessions on Friday, April 28 (virtual, 7 - 9 p.m. ) and Saturday, April 29 (in person at St. Barnabas Parish, Scarborough, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Participation in both sessions is required. A special invitation is extended to parishes that formerly used the Catholic Family Services of Toronto marriage preparation program. Facilitators who attended our previous training in Joy-Filled Marriage are also welcome to attend as a refresher. 

These training sessions are for clergy and current or prospective parish marriage preparation leaders only. Engaged couples who are seeking marriage preparation should be directed to their parish or to Catholic Family Services of Toronto.

A list of the registrants from your parish will be communicated to your pastor, and arrangements on how to receive training material will be communicated. 

Questions from parishes? Contact: Annalisa Parente at aparente@archtoronto.org or 416-934-3400, ext. 569.