Denver Catholic

T hree parish pastors in Denver have put together a new Catho- lic marriage preparation retreat called "Entrust" that seeks to ensure engaged couples can form strong, life- long ties with their priests preparing them for the sacrament. "We're really trying to form and forge deep relationships with all of these couples," Father Samuel More- head, pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, told the Denver Catholic. "We're not pre- paring you for a day. We're preparing you for a lifetime, and we're not going anywhere." Father Morehead has joined two other parish pastors to run the Entrust retreat as a team: Father Daniel Ciucci of Most Precious Blood Catholic Parish and Father Nick Larkin of Assumption Catholic Parish. They have run the two-day retreat twice and plan another for November. Father Morehead said that one aim of the retreat is "to actually get to know our own couples better by per- sonally investing in them and not out- sourcing the retreats." This, he said, helps priests be "a source of blessing and a resource for future encounters with God in the Church." The retreat aims to encourage engaged couples to continue to involve priests in their life once they are mar- ried, Father Morehead's collaborator Father Ciucci told the Denver Catholic. "What we want is to communicate that the priesthood is there for the couples when they're in need and before they're in dire need," he said. Much marriage counseling depends on the context and on the couple, he said. If a married couple is "known and loved" by the priest before any need for counseling arises, they can be helped even more. Like other marriage preparation programs, the Entrust retreat features lay Catholic speakers like a psycholo- gist and a financial expert. Two mar- ried couples also offer their testimony. Father Morehead, while not want- ing to be too critical of other marriage preparation programs, questioned whether Church trends in recent decades have emphasized lay Catholic leadership in marriage preparation to the point that the priest's role has been diminished. In his view, many marriage preparation retreats lack the constant presence of a priest, and their speakers sometimes focus on practicalities of marriage and lack confidence in speak- ing on theological topics. The Entrust approach seeks both to "affirm the best of the practical" and to address this shortcoming. It appears to be working, according to anonymous feedback from their April 2023 retreat. "Personally, I have not interacted a lot with priests," one unnamed bride-to-be said in a report Entrust organizers provided to the Denver Catholic. This feeling of distance, she said, made it difficult for her to "feel connected to the Church." "I think the biggest takeaway was just the interactions I had with all the priests and how loving and like normal people they are," the retreat participant said. "It was just sort of life altering for me to feel accepted in the Church and connected to other people." Participation of the priests is key, Entrust organizers said. "We priests are present the whole time. That's probably the distinguish- ing factor," Father Ciucci explained. "We don't get dropped in for a half- an-hour talk or a pep speech. We're there. If we need to get pulled aside, we can be." ⊲ 39 DENVER CATHOLIC | FEB-MAR 2024

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