March 26, 2010
Marriage Convocation includes a rare opportunity to view unpublished video
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Participants at the April 10 Marriage Convocation in Evansville will be the proverbial “first on your block” to see a video that will not be released to the general public until later this year. It will be shown as part of a presentation by Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, leading a bishops’ Ad Hoc committee in Defense of Marriage.
“Marriage existed long before the state or the church,” says Archbishop Kurtz. “It is the foundation of the family and society.” Archbishop Kurtz speaks on a Youtube video, accessed at a website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, www.usccb.org/defenseofmarriage.
On the video, Kurtz continues, “The testimony of history and the judgment of our own natural reason point to one simple conclusion: marriage was given to us from the beginning by God with a particular structure and for specific purposes. It is the exclusive union of one man and one woman joined in an intimate community of love and life.”
The archbishop goes on to say that in marriage, a man and a woman pledge themselves to each other for a lifetime, and accept the responsibility of bringing children into the world and caring for them.
He said this understanding of marriage has been accepted for centuries, and even at times, taken for granted.
In today’s world, however, the Catholic bishops find an increasing divergence from this view of marriage, and that reality has prompted the bishops to establish the Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage. Archbishop Kurtz is the head of that committee.
The archbishop will speak at the Evansville convocation on “Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan.” He will also present a 12-minute video, the first of five planned by the ad hoc commmittee.
The video has not yet been published, according to a program specialist working for the ad hoc committee, and viewers at the Evansville event will be asked to react to it and to provide feedback.
The video is entitled, “Made for Each Other.” It is designed to be accompanied by a viewer’s guide and a resource booklet. The viewer’s guide is aimed at Catholic young adults; the resource guide is for priests, deacons, catechists, teachers and others preparing couples for a Catholic marriage.
Both the viewer’s guide and the resource booklet are still in draft form, and once again, participants at the Evansville presentation will have the opportunity to provide reaction and feedback to the ad hoc committee before the publications take their final form.
The video, “Made for Each Other,” offers an introduction to Church catechesis on sexual difference and complementarity.
Andrew Lichtenwalner, program specialist for the ad hoc committeee is at the USCCB Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis in Washington, D.C. He says the video is “not meant to be a commercial” but will be “a catechetical and educational” presentation to be used in conjunction with the viewer’s guide and the resource booklet.
The next video will be about the good of children, how children are a gift, and include teaching about the important roles of mothers and fathers.
The third video in the series will talk about marriage in relationship to the dignity of the person and to the common good.
The fouth video will treat the impact of the Church teaching religious liberty.
The fifth and final video in the series wil be in Spanish, compiling portions of the first four videos with an approach immediately directed to a Spanish speaking audience.
The work of the ad hoc committee, including the video series, is funded by the Knights of Columbus.
The first video, as of yet unpublished, was viewed by the U.S. bishops at their fall meeting last November. At that time, the viewer’s guide and the resource boklet were not yet developed.
The participants at the Evansville marriage convocation will have the rare experience of viewing a preview copy of the video and using the draft copies of the publications that accompany it.
The marriage convocation, entitled “Search for Love and Truth,” will be held at Good Shepherd Church in Evansville, on Saturday, April 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It is sponsored by the Diocese of Evansville in partnership with the Diocese of Owensboro, and in conjuction with the Diocese of Belleville.
Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger will lead a Morning Prayer at 8:30; Archbishop Kurtz is scheduled to speak at 9 a.m. The video, “Made for Each Other,” will be shown at approximately 10 a.m.
A second convocation speaker, Jim Healy, will speak on “Catholic Marriage: The Way Forward,” at 11 a.m.
Two series of workshops and breakout sessions will be held in the afternoon, after lunch catered by the Black Buggy. The fee for registration is $20 per person, or $35 for an engaged or married couple; lunch is included.
Registration forms for the convocation have been provided to every parish in the Diocese of Evansville, to the diocesan offices in Owesnboro, and to selected parishes in the southern Illinois Diocese of Belleville.
Registration forms may also be completed on the web, at www.ourcatholicmarriage.org, a site maintained by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Evansville.