Can You Fail Pre-Cana?

Pre-Cana prepares couples for marriage using the teachings of the Catholic Church and the expertise of medical professionals, theologians, authors, and seasoned married couples. The Catholic Church teaches that the Sacrament of Matrimony is a covenant between a man, a woman, and God. Read more here.

Not every discussion will be easy, but it will be worth the effort. Pre-Cana can indeed raise “red flags” for some couples. They will have the opportunity to work out those potential conflicts before marriage. In rare cases, couples find that they need to postpone marriage to give themselves time to work on personal issues or to work on issues as a couple.

Pre-Cana can be completed in person or online. Engaged couples should meet with the priest at the church where they plan to marry many months before the intended wedding. Most churches require couples to contact their parish at least six months in advance.

Different parishes and dioceses have varying requirements for allowable Pre-Cana courses. Some Catholic parishes and dioceses offer Pre-Cana through in-person weekend programs that are scheduled for a few weekends throughout the year. These often require registration well in advance of the program.

Other options are in-person Pre-Cana class series that are offered over several weeks or months. Sometimes an engaged couple is paired with a mentor couple to guide them through the process.

Another option is a fully online Pre-Cana marriage preparation program. The Marriage Group offers a fully online and on-demand Pre-Cana course that is ​​listed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as one of the programs that are widely used in dioceses and parishes. It was also found to have no conflict with Catholic teaching according to the USCCB.

The course takes about 8 hours to complete and includes comprehensive videos, discussion questions, and His and Hers discussion guide. It can be used independently by couples, with a mentor couple, or with oversight by a priest, deacon, or other parish ministry leader.

Online courses are appealing to those who wish to have more privacy than an in-person course would allow. They are also more convenient for couples who are navigating long-distance relationships or who have incompatible work schedules or heavy demands on their time and in-person courses are not possible.

Online Pre-Cana can also be used alongside in-person options. For example, couples who want to dive deeper into preparing for a lifelong marriage may choose to do online Pre-Cana after a weekend retreat. Many find they can have deeper discussions over time and benefit from the privacy and self-paced nature of online experiences.

Online Pre-Cana courses are on-demand, so couples can go at their own pace and review topics as many times as they wish. There is no pressure to complete discussions in a certain time frame, and they have the freedom to discuss intimate topics in the privacy of their own environment.

The Marriage Group offers Pre-Cana courses in both English and Spanish!

When an engaged couple completes a Pre-Cana course, they will get a certificate of completion. There is no pass or fail, nor are there grades. Married couples will be living out the things they learned in Pre-Cana throughout their lives as sacramentally married couples.

In fact, preparing for a healthy lifelong marriage is an ongoing process. Couples get the most out of programs that go beyond the initial Pre-Cana course and support them long after their wedding day. Some parishes offer marriage enrichment activities, and The Marriage Group’s Marriage Every Day Community is an online version of a supportive community for couples who want to grow strong marriages.