The Office of Family Life is looking forward to the new year when it will present a series of events focused on numerous facets of Catholic family life.

The office covers preparations and accompaniment for married couples; educating, forming, supporting, and strengthening families; building and promoting a culture of life; and providing healing and comfort to those struggling with loss, grief, or brokenness. 

Specifically, the office finds its foundation in the four pillars of marriage and family life found in the United States Conference of Bishops document Called to the Joy of Love: The National Pastoral Framework for Marriage and Family Life Ministry. Those pillars are prayer and relationship with Christ; formation; accompaniment, and advocacy.

The Office of Family Life is undertaking specific initiatives, including parish revitalization, focusing on marriage and the family, and the parish as a place where all parishioners may connect. A similar effort is being made in regard to the marriage catechumenate, a Vatican-led process that “prepares Catholic couples for marriage and accompanies married couples throughout life,” Theodore J. Musco, director of the Office of Family Life said in an interview with The Good Newsroom.

On the calendar for 2023, in January the office will present additional sessions of its “Educate – Encourage – Engage” gatherings at three archdiocese parishes. They will focus on Engage: Meet and greet parish staff (clergy and laity, paid and volunteer) ministering in any field of Family Life including, but not limited to, marriage preparation, marriage enrichment, parenting, separated and divorced, bereavement, pornography, and more; Encourage: Provide resources and initiatives to be used in parishes and families; and Educate: Explore the riches found in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 2021 document Called to the Joy of Love: National Pastoral Framework for Marriage and Family Life Ministry.

Those events will take place on January 10, 7:00– 8:30 PM at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Bronx; January 17, 7:00– 8:30 PM at St. Thomas Church in Staten Island; and January 26, 7:00 – 8:30 PM, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Shrub Oak.

The week of February 7-14 will focus on marriage and the sacrament of marriage, under the theme of “Call to the Joy of Love.”

In March, the Office of Family Life will organize Safe Haven Sunday on March 12, an anti-pornography event that will make use of faith-sharing books and introduce Covenant Eyes, a pornography-blocking software. Safe Haven Sunday is an annual weekend set aside by dioceses and parishes to directly address the harms of pornography.

Also in March, the office will organize the Family Life Conference at Cathedral High School in the Terence Cardinal Cooke Center on March 25.

More information on the Office of Family Life’s offerings and an updated calendar of events is available on its website.