Some parishes establish a validity period for the Marriage Catechumenate or the Preparation Sessions for Married Life (PSML), also known as “engaged couples’ courses.” Generally, this period ranges from one to two years. However, such practice finds no support in Church documents and lacks practical justification.
A couple who continues dating or remains engaged after completing the marriage catechumenate has already demonstrated having reached one of its goals — discernment regarding the vocation to Marriage — even if their engagement period extends for a few more years.
There is no mention of expiration dates in the Church’s Magisterium, whether in the Catechism, the Code of Canon Law, or in specific documents on the subject, such as the recent Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life, published by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.
It is also important to note that the certificate should not be issued individually, that is, there should not be one certificate for the man and another for the woman. The certificate must be a single document bearing the names of both, since this period is one of discernment regarding the couple’s relationship.
In practice, it is incompatible to establish a certificate validity period while also encouraging committed dating and engaged couples to take part in the catechumenate in advance, even before formalizing their engagement, as recommended in Magisterial documents.
Unfortunately, there are still parishes that do not allow couples to participate in the Marriage Catechumenate beforehand, or unless they have already scheduled the wedding date, which contradicts the guidance of the Church.
Both couples and pastoral agents may express a sense of incompleteness, a feeling that something is missing, if a couple participates in the catechumenate too far in advance. This sentiment usually arises when the recommended ongoing accompaniment is not offered over a longer period, and when the final stage of preparation, the Immediate Preparation, focused on the celebration of Marriage rather than on discernment, is not provided in the months leading up to the wedding.
Moreover, as a complementary initiative, parishes may offer all couples, whether already married or not, opportunities for reflection and formation on various topics, even revisiting themes previously addressed during the marriage catechumenate. In this way, a continuous cycle of lectures or sharing groups can be established.
Therefore, setting an expiration date and requiring a couple to repeat the marriage catechumenate if they marry “after the validity period” does not contribute to the quality of preparation that each parish is called to provide. Furthermore, I reiterate that such a requirement finds no support in the Church’s official guidelines.
