The Importance of Marriage Groups for Marriage and Family Life

Abstract

Following the Second Vatican Council, which re–evaluated married life in the Church, Jesuit Father Vital Vider founded the first marriage group in the Catholic Church. This occurred in Slovenia in 1972 and was the beginning of the Our Way Marriage Groups, an Apostolic Work of the Society of Jesus. In 2022, when Our Way celebrated its 50th anniversary, there was a total of 65 marriage groups. To mark the occasion, a larger study was conducted on the significance of Our Way to married couples in the form of an on–line survey. The aim of the survey was to establish the manner in which the spouses who participate in these marriage groups perceive their value and importance for themselves personally and for their families, and to what extent the goals for the marriage groups that Our Way has defined are being achieved. Also examined was the extent to which the rules Our Way has set forth for the functioning of the marriage groups are lived out in practice and what, in the experience of the spouses themselves, is most vital for the groups to function well such that they might bear the best possible fruit. This paper consists of four sections as well as an introduction and a conclusion. It presents the results of an analysis of the responses to survey questions. Analysis results have confirmed that marriage groups are valuable for both spouses and their families. They have also confirmed that the rules set forth by Our Way are considerably important for the functioning of marriage groups, and that they bear significant fruit in both marriages and families.