The Archdiocesan Family Life Commission’s (AFLC) vision is to proclaim to all people the plan of God for marriage and family life and thus promote the renewal of family, Church, and nation.

With this vision in mind, the AFLC seek sponsorship of the Catholic Marriage Initiative (CMI) fund whose  purpose “is to dramatically increase the availability of and participation in high quality Catholic Marriage Ministries throughout the United States”, the Archdiocese of Port of Spain is the only diocese outside of the US to receive such funds.

With a goal of “Investing in Marriage,” the CMI fund was established to dramatically increase the availability of and participation in high quality Catholic Marriage Ministries  that are balanced between teaching the Church’s teaching on marriage (vision), providing the ‘how to love” (skills) and a community (support), strengthening, renewing and restoring, giving children the important benefits of an intact family life in which to grow up and thrive in.

Over the next four years the Archdiocese and the CMI fund will be investing heavily in the following areas:

• Preparing engaged couples for Immediate Preparation (within six months)
• Accompanying married couples in the first five years
• Ongoing marriage enrichment
• Accompanying married couples in crisis
• Accompanying persons who are separated, divorced, widowed

In the area of accompanying the married, from February 2023 ongoing the AFLC have been seeking and training Catholic, dedicated married couple leaders who have  been training to guide and inspire others on the  marital journey. These married leaders have been carefully selected from within the parish, and are currently going through comprehensive training in various aspects of marriage and family life. Their role will involve mentoring engaged couples, guiding communication, conflict resolution, and fostering spiritual growth within marriages through:

• Sacramental Marriage Building: a Catholic-based, dynamic skills course for marriage strengthening with coached skills by trained ‘Marriage Angels’.
• Marriage Care: a ministry of care for marriages in crisis; for couples going through difficulties or loss, and even those who are just wanting help to know what to do to strengthen their marriages and is designed to change the parish’s response to a marriage in need by giving them every chance to survive, and even better, to thrive.

This three-part formation/training for parish married couple leaders involves:

1. Participating in a weekend training course
2. Ongoing online coaching
3. Training in parish facilitation