PRE CANA

hmm i guess i worded that wrong lol, i meant anyone who has gone to pre cana but is not catholic.

let me fix my previous post!

my pre-cana sessions were not at all 'religious.' I did three 2-hour sessions and then the last meeting we went to mass and had a 'graduation party.'

First session, we went around the room and had to introduce our partner. For example, this is my FH ______, he is one of the funniest people I know' that kind of thing. Then we talked about how we met and stuff like that.

Second session, was a lot of talking about the different ways different people do things and how what you saw in your own family growing up shapes your relationships to a certain extent.

Third session was about $$$ and making decisions together. They also spent about 10 minutes talking about sex which was basically, we're not getting preachy - it's an important part of a relationship....

Fourth session, we went to mass as a group, they introduced all the pre-cana couples to the parish, we got a crucifix that was blessed and the priest blessed our engagement rings. That was it. It was actually kinda fun.

HTH

ok my pre cana was not as bad as we thought it would be! we actually like it.
it was pretty much just a bunch of couples talking about life experiences! offer their advice, force you a little bit to discuss things with your FH that you prob either havent even thought about or didnt think was a big deal!
im sure not all classes can be as good as ours was! but it just might be not that bad!

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Posted by mlcvln129

I thought that you couldn't go through Catholic pre-cana if you weren't Catholic. (This is why FH and I aren't having a religious ceremony.)

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You can - as long as one of you has been baptized in a Catholic church you can get married there. Some churches are more strict with that but I have a few friends who got married in a church when only one was Catholic.

As for pre-cana, mine was fine but a little on the boring side. We didn't talk at all other than introducing ourselves - it was the priest and members of the parish talking about the bible and communication and things like that.

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Posted by mlcvln129

I thought that you couldn't go through Catholic pre-cana if you weren't Catholic. (This is why FH and I aren't having a religious ceremony.)

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Yes if one is Catholic you can get married in a Catholic church. FH Is Catholic and we are having a Catholic ceremony and we did Pre-Cana. Also he is from NJ, so we had to find a church that would let us get married even though we weren't part of the parish, but thanks to a neighbor we did. The non Catholic one has to have been baptized some religion, I had to have proof I was Episcopal.


Pre-Cana wasn't bad. Its sitting around talking about feelings and bringing up important things you will encounter in marriage. I think most of the people around us got a lot out of it. FH and I didn't. We have known each other for 11 years and were best friends first, we got an almost perfect score on our FOCCUS so the priest told us we would probably not get a lot out of Pre-Cana. But if you haven't discussed important marital issues, Pre-Cana will point it out and help you to discuss them. At least that was ours.

It wasn't a lot of religious stuff or an attempt to convert you. I was worried about that and didn't think it was like that at all.

Thanks girls, I really needed to hear all that! I feel much better about it now!

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Posted by mlcvln129

I thought that you couldn't go through Catholic pre-cana if you weren't Catholic. (This is why FH and I aren't having a religious ceremony.)

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You definitely can, Fh is Catholic and I'm not (Episcopalian). But even furthermore the Engaged Encounter we are attending is open to any couples of any religion, even though it is through the Catholic church and fulfills the PreCana requirement.

Ours is next weekend so I will let you know how it goes!