Catholic Engaged Encounter helps couples discover God's call to unite in a permanent union

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SALT LAKE CITY — As with every other ministry in the diocese, Catholic Engaged Encounter has had to find ways to deal with the challenging times brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Catholic Engaged Encounter, a worldwide ministry, provides “a quiet weekend, specifically designed to give you the opportunity to talk honestly and intensively about your future together – an opportunity to discover a deeper appreciation of your relationship and God’s call to unite in a permanent union, the Sacrament of Matrimony,” according to the organization’s website.

In Utah, Frank and JoAnna Pedroza have been organizing the Catholic Engaged Encounter for the past 15 years. Typically, the weekend’s program included two teams of  married couples who presented a series of talks.

“The format [in Salt Lake] might be slightly different than in other states. What we present here are commuter weekends that do not require an overnight stay,” Frank Pedroza said.

In this diocese, the Engaged Encounter weekend usually began on Saturday morning. The couples typically left about 10 p.m. and returned Sunday morning, to complete their weekend around 5 p.m. In the past, five of these weekends were held each year.

In January of 2020 “we did a normal in-person weekend … and then the pandemic hit,” Pedroza said.

Last March, for the first time in Utah, the Catholic Engaged Encounter had to be cancelled. Those couples who had been enrolled in the March weekend were rescheduled to the May weekend, “but all the weddings were stopped, so we ended doing the same thing – pushing the date to August,” he said.

August came along, and with it the peak of the pandemic, so the decision to have a virtual weekend was made, using guidelines in consultation with the national organization.

Fifteen couples participated in that virtual Encounter weekend. Then, at the end of last year, with  seven couples registered for the local Catholic Engaged Encounter and the number of COVID-19 cases decreasing, “considering that the facility that we used was large enough and taking the extra precautions, we held the in-person  encounter. We did the same thing in January of this year,” Pedroza said.

The Engaged Encounter weekend scheduled for this month was postponed because only one couple registered. Now, enrollment is open for the May weekend.

“Sometimes people think more about the wedding than their marriage, and anything that we can help prepare the couples for and in their marriage we will do it, that’s the key – help that they will need to be successful in their marriage,” said Pedroza, adding the reminder that “A wedding is a day, a marriage is a lifetime.”

Couples from out of state as well as those in Utah can participate in a Catholic Engaged Encounter. To register for an Engaged Encounter weekend, complete the registration form available at eeutah.org. For information about Catholic Engaged Encounter, contact Frank Pedroza, LCs@eeutah.org.