• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A file photo shows some of the more than 100 couples renew their wedding vows on World Marriage Day during a 2014 Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. World Marriage Day is observed Feb. 9. (OSV News file photo/Victor Aleman, Via Nueva)

Polka dancing, Hershey’s Kisses and novenas for World Marriage Day

February 6, 2025
By Zoey Maraist
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

A sea of heart-shaped cards, candy and decor reminds couples that Valentine’s Day is around the corner. But at the same time, many Catholic parishes are preparing to celebrate a related but different memorial to love — World Marriage Day.

The holiday began in Baton Rouge in 1981 when marriage enthusiasts declared Feb. 14 “We Believe in Marriage Day.” The Catholic organization Worldwide Marriage Encounter adopted and spread the celebration, now held on the second Sunday of February. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops picked “Marriage: Source of Hope, Spring of Renewal. Pursue a Lasting Love!” as the theme for this year’s World Marriage Day, Feb. 9 and National Marriage Week, Feb. 7-14.

In College Station, Texas, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish is celebrating World Marriage Day with a blessing over all the married couples at the Feb. 8 vigil Mass followed by a parish dinner dance. This year’s dance has a Polish wedding theme, complete with kielbasa, sauerkraut, a traditional cookie table and polka dancing. Each table will have bread and salt, a Polish wedding custom symbolizing the saltiness of life and a prayer for continued sustenance.

The whole parish pitches in to make the event a success, said St. Thomas Aquinas’ pastor, Father Albert Laforet Jr.

“We try to make it very family friendly and inexpensive so our young families can participate,” he told OSV News.

“We have a group of parishioners called the St. Lawrence Grill team to prepare the food — smoking meat is a great Texas tradition. Another group of parishioners formed a band for the dancing. The American Heritage Girls do the decorations,” he said.

A strong marriage and family culture in the church fosters vocations, said Father Laforet. He shared that St. Thomas Aquinas has several parishioners in formation, including four seminarians and one woman discerning religious life.

“We encourage our families to promote all the vocations in their family life,” he said.

As World Marriage Day coordinators for Worldwide Marriage Encounter, Tom and Julie Gennaro are promoting the holiday by sharing ways parishes can mark the occasion.

“It can be as simple as asking your priest to pray over married couples to handing out Hershey’s Kisses as people leave the parish,” said Julie Gennaro.

Other ideas include running a bulletin announcement celebrating marriage, posting a video message with testimonies from married couples, celebrating a liturgy honoring marriage or hosting a marriage enrichment event.

“Our marriages are an outward sign of God’s grace to us and it’s incumbent on us to celebrate our marriage and celebrate the sacrament of marriage,” said Tom Gennaro.

Worldwide Marriage Encounter also promotes marriage throughout the year with its annual Longest Married Couple Project, an initiative to find and honor longtime married couples across the country. Recent winners include Charles and Goldia Sasse from Fairbury, Illinois, who had been married 79 years.

“We personally love recognizing couples that inspire us in our community … and letting them know we think their longevity has been an inspiration to us as a married couple,” said Julie Gennaro.

Thirteen years ago, Louisiana Catholic couple Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret, co-authors of “The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship: Forming Marriages and Families to Share the Joy of the Gospel,” wanted to help marriages by connecting couples more meaningfully to their church community. So they founded the Witness to Love marriage ministry.

Their marriage formation program is modeled on the catechumenate and has engaged couples also pick their mentor couple (using specific criteria) that they know and respect. The mentor couple commits to walk alongside the engaged couple throughout their entire marriage.

“We were trying to do a two-for-one evangelization effort, and by allowing the church community to get involved in marriage preparation, it just changed the whole parish,” Mary-Rose Verret told OSV News.

The Witness to Love program is now in 85 dioceses and has been used by thousands of couples and their mentors.

Much like when seminarians give their testimony at the end of Mass, Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret hope married couples can take to the pulpit to share their story on World Marriage Day.

During this Jubilee Year, which Pope Franics has given the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” the Verrets are also encouraging parishes to reach out to civilly married couples.

One small parish in a remote part of Texas launched Witness to Love’s Civil Marriage Initiative and had 20 couples and their mentors have their marriages convalidated on the same day, said Mary-Rose Verret.

“Exactly a year later they had another 20 couples,” she said. “They just decided they were going to make this a priority — they’re being evangelical, they’re being missionaries. It’s really beautiful.”

On their social media, Witness to Love will be sharing a novena for the sacrament of matrimony. Each day of the nine-day prayer will have a patron saint couple and special intentions including for widows and widowers, couples experiencing infertility and couples in challenging marriages.

“Married life can be difficult, especially in today’s culture (so) we’re just trying to wrap every married couple in a prayerful hug with this novena,” said Mary-Rose. “You can never pray enough for marriage.”

Read More Marriage & Family Life

Practice the ‘BeDADitudes’

Reach out to families; let them know God loves them, pope says

A family’s love grounded in Christ is sign of peace for world, pope says

Leaders in foster care, adoption look at post-Roe landscape for their ministries

Pope names new chancellor of institute for marriage, family sciences

Called to foster: Families welcome children with love

Copyright © 2025 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Zoey Maraist

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pope Leo to return to practice of ‘imposing’ pallium on new archbishops

  • Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including pastor and associate pastor assignments

  • Pope’s brother says even as a baby, future pontiff had a spiritual ‘air’ about him

  • Hundreds gather at Rebuilt Conference 2025 to ‘imagine what’s possible’ in parish ministry

  • Diversity is cause for strength, not division, pope tells Rome clergy

| Latest Local News |

Sister Joan Minella, former principal and pastoral life director, dies

Archbishop Lori offers encouragement to charitable agencies affected by federal cuts

Incoming superior general of Oblate Sisters of Providence outlines priorities

Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including pastor and associate pastor assignments

Oblate Sister Trinita Baeza, teacher and pastoral associate in Baltimore, dies at 98

| Latest World News |

Pope urges peace, warns against escalation in Middle East conflict

Minnesota lawmaker who once taught Catholic Sunday school shot and killed in apparent ‘politically motivated assassination’

In video for Chicago’s celebration, Pope Leo urges youth to recognize the ways God is reaching out to them

Pope: Sport reveals beauty of God, teaches teamwork, humility and hope

A pending element of tackling the abuse crisis: transparency

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope urges peace, warns against escalation in Middle East conflict
  • Minnesota lawmaker who once taught Catholic Sunday school shot and killed in apparent ‘politically motivated assassination’
  • In video for Chicago’s celebration, Pope Leo urges youth to recognize the ways God is reaching out to them
  • Pope: Sport reveals beauty of God, teaches teamwork, humility and hope
  • A pending element of tackling the abuse crisis: transparency
  • Vatican can take 3 key steps to bring Ukrainian kids back from Russia, says child advocate
  • Practice the ‘BeDADitudes’
  • Delaware garden of plenty provides food to needy, thanks to Vincentians, parishes
  • Pope sets Sept. 7 for joint canonization of Blesseds Acutis and Frassati

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en