Eighteenth in a series on the 75th anniversary of the Diocese of Madison
In the early years of the Diocese of Madison, a Catholic Family Life Movement included outreach to couples planning to be married and married couples.
Pre-Cana courses
Engaged couples attended Pre-Cana courses starting in 1955 at St. Raphael Cathedral in Madison.
The courses were held in Madison four or five times a year and also held annually in Platteville, Janesville, Beloit, Watertown, and other locations.
By 1967, there were about 350 couples attending the courses each year. A group of priests, doctors, lay couples, financial counselors, and psychiatrists staffed the program.
There were also Cana Conferences for married couples and an annual Bible holy hour to celebrate silver and golden jubilees of married couples.
Establishes diocesan office
When Bishop Cletus F. O’Donnell became the second Bishop of Madison, he expanded marriage and family ministry in the diocese.
In 1973, he established the diocesan Office of Family Ministry, which he later said did “tremendous work” in many areas. The programs offered included:
• Marriage Preparation — A one-day workshop providing an opportunity for engaged couples, or those thinking of engagement, to explore a committed sacramental relationship.
Led by two married couples and a priest or Religious, couples spend the day exploring their coming life together; discovering strengths and limitations, desires and goals; discussing attitudes about sex, children, and family; and talking about their role in society and their faith community.
• Marriage Encounter — A weekend away from home for married couples to reflect on their marriage, become reacquainted, and learn or re-learn how to talk and listen to each other.
The weekends are led by a team of married couples and clergy who have been trained in various areas of married life.
• Marriage Enrichment — A full day or evening program presented by a priest and team couples trained by the Office of Family Ministry. The team couples present talks on self-awareness, communication, sexuality, and sacrament.
• FOCCUS — FOCCUS is a program for married couples who help prepare engaged couples for marriage on the parish level.
The diocese has also offered programs and retreats for single, widowed, separated, and divorced Catholics.
It has also sponsored Project Rachel retreats — for those who have experienced the pain of abortion — as well as Natural Family Planning classes.
Many of these programs are still offered by the Diocese of Madison.
Bishop O’Donnell’s leadership
As chairman of the Committee for Canonical Affairs of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop O’Donnell issued a statement in November of 1977 to explain the vote to repeal the penalty of excommunication in the United States on divorced Catholics who remarry.
He said that the “removal of this particular excommunication . . . can foster healing and reconciliation” and “is a gesture of love (from the community of the faithful).”
Bishop O’Donnell was involved with the Synod of Bishops addressing Christian family life. It was an attempt to put into practice what Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1981 Exhortation on the Family (Familiaris Consortio): “No plan for organized pastoral work at any level must ever fail to take into consideration the pastoral area of the family.”
In 1988, the U.S. bishops issued a document, A Family Perspective in Church and Society, which became a manual for all pastoral leaders. The document was the basis of many collaborative efforts made in the Diocese of Madison to ensure that the family remained a focus of diocesan ministry.
Sources: Building Our Future in Faith: Commemorative History of the Catholic Diocese of Madison (1996); archives of the Catholic Herald newspaper.
Mary C. Uhler served on the staff of the Catholic Herald-Diocese of Madison for almost 47 years, the last 34 years as editor. She retired in July of 2020.