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Convention Publicity in The Catholic Review

Jennifer Williams

Marriage Encounter Convention Draws 700 Couples

By Jennifer Williams Staff correspondent
Reprint permission granted by
The Catholic Review, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Baltimore

When John Geer recalls his first Worldwide Marriage Encounter ( WWME) weekend 10 years ago, he remembers it as a “ life- changing event … like coming out of a cave.”

The Arlington, Va., resident and his wife, Ann, had been married 27 years when they decided to participate in an Encounter Weekend, where they learned to dialogue and better communicate their feelings with one another.

Like many of the 700 couples participating in the national Worldwide Marriage Encounter convention at Towson University July 8¬ 10, the Geers, now married nearly 37 years, have.

“ I have discovered more about my husband in the last 10 years than in the 30 years prior to that,” said Mrs. Geer as she sat in the Towson Center auditorium the morning of July 9.

More than 300 children were also present for the convention, engaging in funfilled activities while their parents listened to talks related to the convention theme of “In God We Trust.”

The convention talks were also presented in Spanish and Korean.

Priests always participate in the WWME Weekends, and some 70 priests attended the convention.

“ I also have to learn how to share my feelings,” said Father Dennis Hughes, a priest of 30 years from the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla.

I had learned for many years through high school and the seminary to just keep my feelings to myself. Through the Marriage Encounter Weekend, I learned to express those feelings. It’s a lot healthier,” he said.

Marriage Encounter began in Spain in the 1950s. By the late 1960s, more than two dozen priests and some 50 couples were presenting weekends in the United States, helping couples to revitalize their marriages.

During WWME Weekends, couples and priests learn to dialogue, spending 10 minutes writing a response to a question and then 10 minutes discussing it. Couples keep the Weekend experience going by joining small groups in their area, which meet monthly in couples’ homes.

More than 50 volunteers helped coordinate the 2005 convention, which energized WWME participants.

Mrs. Geer said WWME isn’t for people who have troubled relationships. “It’s for good marriages, to help them become great,” she said.

Cardinal William H. Keeler celebrated the convention’s closing Mass July 10, telling the couples what a joy it was to be with them. “ I remember vividly our meeting of several years ago, when you came from across the United States to join in a liturgy of thanksgiving for so much good being accomplished through Marriage Encounter,” the cardinal said. “We are together again, and we have so much to thank the Lord for.” He also asked the couples to pray for the success of the meeting of representatives of the interfaith Religious Alliance Against Pornography and the U. S. Attorney General that was to take place this week.

For more about Worldwide Marriage Encounter, visit www.wwme.org

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