by Eve Morse, High School
“[T]he whole earth followed the beast with wonder. Men worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast”[1]. Most Reverend Fathers, this following of the beast and the worship of the dragon are as evident to our own eyes today as they were to the Beloved Disciple John. The beast is commonly interpreted by Biblical scholars to be the Roman Empire, which “the dragon” gave his authority to. In addition to meaning Rome, the beast could represent my own country. The United States of America does not only share the emblem of Rome, which is the eagle, but also has the same devil-worship and politic-worship of that fallen empire. Satan can never learn, but he is not at all unintelligent. The devil knows that marriage is the foundation of the family and that the family is the foundation of society. He also knows that the most efficient way to send the largest number of Christ’s lambs to Hell is a frontal assault on Marriage. But, he disguises his attack by making the followers of the beast less openly vicious towards us. The devil lures us into only wanting to fit in. This ill-found desire to be only another copy of the relativistic norm has caused the majority of us to be complacent, no longer burn with righteousness, and even to misunderstand important aspects of our Faith. These misunderstandings are then taught to other Catholics through our examples and words. The sad reality that innocent children are often taught these inaccuracies requires parents to be on guard and teach their children well, but many Catholic parents are equally unaware of the fullness of the Truth. The evidence found in the United States of America and in the whole modern world shows that both the religious and the laity should be aiding future and current families with a thorough pre- and post-Cana education, or “Marriage catechumenate,” through the methods approved and promoted by Popes John Paul II and Francis, or else face the downfall of society.
As Catholics, we are meant to be an example to all the world. The Early Christians were commonly called the “Easter People” for the joy they spread because of the joy of Christ’s resurrection that was always present within their hearts. We are still called to be the Easter People because we are the only Church with the fullness of the Truth, and it is our calling to share this Faith with others. Sadly, the majority of Catholic Americans are not bringing light to the world but are instead being corrupted by the world’s darkness. According to a survey done by Pew Research in 2020, almost 50% of the nation’s citizens—Catholics included, but not separately grouped—agrees that the exchange of pornographic self-images between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable[2]. Shockingly, over 60% of Catholics in the United States believe that casual sex between unmarried persons is acceptable, assuming mutual consent[3]. If the statistics involving fornication are appalling, so too is the finding that 68% of Catholic women have used contraception and only 2% use Natural Family Planning[4]. The results released in 2022 of another survey showed that most American Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances. This percentage includes a shocking 30% of regular Mass attenders and totals to 56% of all American Catholics, which is only a frightening 5% below the national average of pro-choice supporters while we are supposed to be setting a much purer example[5]. Besides the glaring fact that the dragon is assaulting us with his lies, perhaps looking back at our past will shed a new light on how this could have occurred.
By comparing the past, our present, and some incidences in between, we can see how we have again followed a pattern leading us away from God. Hundreds of years ago, during the reign of the Roman Empire and after the Ascension of Our Lord, Christianity was catching like the fire used to burn its believers. Faced with constant persecution, understanding the Faith and wholeheartedly believing it was vital to teach others that we should live and die for Christ as He lived and died for us. Then, however, allegedly Christian Emperors entered the scene, jointly issuing an edict promoting the Faith yet adding lethal threats to those who would refuse it. At this point, an influx of non-believing “believers” could be seen, and many Christians were lax in their Faith. This piece of history has repeated itself many times throughout the Church’s timeline and it has happened again in America. Ever since its foundation, the United States has held anti-Catholic beliefs. Nearly all of my country’s Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, were Freemasons. Additionally, out of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence only one man, Charles Carroll, was a Catholic. The real bomb that released the poison of disunity silently exploded in the early 1960’s. This was when the Church held the highly controversial Vatican II. Controversial, not in the teachings of it, but controversial in the lack of the teaching of it. In the end, very few Americans know what the Second Vatican Council really taught. The inaccurate interpretations have been passed down from generation to generation, leading to the utter mess we are in now. Similar difficulties are worldwide. British writer and theologist Joanna Bogle wrote about the difficulties and successes in Catholic marriage preparation in London in 1998[6] and again in 1999[7]. There is also a considerable decline in the Christian share of the population globally, primarily because of abandonment of the Faith[8]. Ultimately, it is very evident that some change must be made.
This call for immediate action has been answered by the Church. In 1980, Pope John Paul II called for the first Synod on the Family. In 2014, Pope Francis called for the same, which was held the following year in 2015. Both popes stressed the importance of the family. Saint Pope John Paul II said, “as goes the family, so goes the Church”[9]. Pope Francis furthered the point when he expressed that Catholic couples need to be taught to “grasp and savor the grace, beauty, and joy of true love, saved and redeemed by Jesus”, emphasizing “the need for a ‘new catechumenate’ in preparation for marriage”[10]. The “new catechumenate” of which Pope Francis spoke is the “marriage catechumenate” which is now encouraged in the place of pre-Cana in the Church today. With the words of Saint Peter’s successors still in our hearts and minds, let us delve into what this “marriage catechumenate” is and why it is the solution to the problem of our society today.
The “catechumenate for marriage” was described by Vatican spokesman Father Thomas Rosica on October 6th, 2015, as a “preparation for marriage, a longer process for marriage as well as a preparation that takes place in the years right after the [wedding]”[11]. On June 15th, 2022, the Vatican officially welcomed the marriage catechumenate by releasing a 97-page document outlining “how marriage formation is to be based on the baptismal catechumenate”[12]. The marriage catechumenate was presented by the Vatican as having three suggested parts. The first of these is a “proximate preparation” that can last between a few months to a whole year with the intention of being geared towards a particular couple’s comprehension and practice of the Faith11. For the months immediately leading up to the wedding, the Vatican suggested an “immediate preparation” with the intention of preparing “the wedding liturgy and [making] final preparations for the couple’s worthy celebration of their sacrament”[13]. The final part of the marriage catechumenate is “marriage ‘mystagogy’”11. This takes place after the wedding day for a minimum of two years and is intended to aid the newlyweds in the early stages of their marriage11. Ultimately, the whole marriage catechumenate would last two and a half to six or so years. The marriage catechumenate forms engaged and married couples in the Faith for their own salvation and that of their children, resulting in an upright family with each individual rooted in Christ Jesus for life here and hereafter.
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters”[14]. The beautiful truths of Matrimony and our whole Faith are so often left untaught or deliberately thrown to the side. The effect that even a single marriage between one man and one woman under God for life has on society is so underestimated and the unique Sacrament of Matrimony is taken so trivially that we as the human race have entered into a detrimentally impactful crisis long ago. We have not been “with Jesus,” not at all. Instead, many of us have sided, even if unknowingly, with the worshippers of the beast in Revelation, clinging onto sinful practices such as pornography, fornication, and abortion. We have not been listening well to the Truth spoken to us in the Bible and by the Catholic Church. So many of us are fallen away and do not see just how against Jesus we are. By encouraging stable Catholic families and the marriage catechumenate, Popes John Paul II and Francis hoped to bring the Church and even the whole world together as one in Christ Jesus. Despite the vicious relativism of the world, let us all embrace our Faith in its fullest for ourselves, our parents, our brothers and sisters, and our children, whether they are our family biologically or solely spiritually in the Body of Christ. Despite the great effort it requires in our modern world, let us persevere in maintaining a pure heart, welcoming and supporting the aid provided to our families through the marriage catechumenate. For it is, after all, the pure of heart who “shall see God.”[15]
Bibliography
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https://www.ncregister.com/features/what-is-the-rite-of-betrothal.
Bogle, Joanna. “Getting Ready for “I Do”.” Catholic Answers, April 1, 1998.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/getting-ready-for-i-do.
Bogle, Joanna. “A Source of Joy and Practical Help.” Catholic Answers, July 1, 1999. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/a-source-of-joy-and-practical-help.
Desmond, Joan Frawley. “Contraception Crisis.” National Catholic Register, May 27, 2011.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/contraception-crisis.
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https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/08/31/half-of-u-s-christians-say-casual-sex-between-consenting-adults-is-sometimes-or-always-acceptable/.
Hackett, Conrad, and Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Shi and Dalia Fahmy. “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020.” Pew Research, June 9, 2025.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/.
“Marriage Preparation Policy, July 2006.” Our Lady of the Visitation Catholic Church, July, 2006.
https://olv-kiowa.solutiosoftware.com/component/fileman/file/documents/MarriagePreparationPolicyJuly2006.pdf?routed=1&container=fileman-files#:~:text=Immediate%20preparation%20consists%20of%20the,worthy%20celebration%20of%20their%20sacrament.
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Smith, Gregory A. “Like Americans overall, Catholics vary in their abortion views, with regular Mass attenders most opposed.” Pew Research, May 23, 2022.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/05/23/like-americans-overall-catholics-vary-in-their-abortion-views-with-regular-mass-attenders-most-opposed/.
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https://www.ncregister.com/features/archdiocese-of-detroit-begins-building-the-marriage-catechumenate.
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https://www.ncregister.com/features/is-marriage-catechumenate-the-church-s-missing-antidote-for-the-marriage-crisis.
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https://www.ncregister.com/news/bishops-start-pre-cana-earlier.
Smith, Peter Jesserer. “Vatican’s New Document Welcomes ‘Marriage Catechumenate’.” National Catholic Register, July 26, 2022.
https://www.ncregister.com/features/vatican-s-new-document-welcomes-marriage-catechumenate.
[1] Revelation 13:3-4 (Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition)
[2] “Microsoft Word – Topline for Dating Landscape report for copy edit.dox,” Pew Research, October, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/08/PSDT_08.20.20_dating-relationships.topline.pdf.
[3] Jeff Diamant, “Half of U.S. Christians say casual sex between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable,” Pew Research, August 31, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/08/31/half-of-u-s-christians-say-casual-sex-between-consenting-adults-is-sometimes-or-always-acceptable/.
[4] Joan Frawley Desmond, “Contraception Crisis,” National Catholic Register, May 27, 2011, https://www.ncregister.com/news/contraception-crisis.
[5] Gregory A. Smith, “Like Americans overall, Catholics vary in their abortion views, with regular Mass attenders most opposed,” Pew Research, May 23, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/05/23/like-americans-overall-catholics-vary-in-their-abortion-views-with-regular-mass-attenders-most-opposed/.
[6] Joanna Bogle, “Getting Ready for “I Do”,” Catholic Answers, April 1, 1998, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/getting-ready-for-i-do.
[7] Joanna Bogle, “A Source of Joy and Practical Help,” Catholic Answers, July 1, 1999, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/a-source-of-joy-and-practical-help.
[8] Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Shi and Dalia Fahmy, “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020,” Pew Research, June 9, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/.
[9] Peter Jesserer Smith, “Archdiocese of Detroit Begins Building the Marriage Catechumenate,” National Catholic Register, November 14, 2017, https://www.ncregister.com/features/archdiocese-of-detroit-begins-building-the-marriage-catechumenate.
[10] Peter Jesserer Smith, “Is Marriage Catechumenate the Church’s Missing ‘Antidote’ for the Marriage Crisis?,” National Catholic Register, February 14, 2017, https://www.ncregister.com/features/is-marriage-catechumenate-the-church-s-missing-antidote-for-the-marriage-crisis.
[11] Peter Jesserer Smith, “Bishops: Start Pre-Cana Earlier,” National Catholic Register, October 28, 2015, https://www.ncregister.com/news/bishops-start-pre-cana-earlier.
[12] Peter Jesserer Smith, “Vatican’s New Document Welcomes ‘Marriage Catechumenate’,” National Catholic Register, July 26, 2022, https://www.ncregister.com/features/vatican-s-new-document-welcomes-marriage-catechumenate.
[13] “Marriage Preparation Policy, July 2006,” Our Lady of the Visitation Catholic Church, July, 2006,
https://olv-kiowa.solutiosoftware.com/component/fileman/file/documents/MarriagePreparationPolicyJuly2006.pdf?routed=1&container=fileman-files#:~:text=Immediate%20preparation%20consists%20of%20the,worthy%20celebration%20of%20their%20sacrament.
[14] Matthew 12: 30 (Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition)
[15]Matthew 5:8 (Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition)
This essay followed the prompt: You are a representative at the Third Vatican Council and have 1,500-2,500 words to explain an issue that you believe needs utmost attention in the Church today. What will you say to the Council Fathers?