Marriage Preparation: Pre-Marital Inventories
The basics
The Basics
Archdiocesan Policy on Marriage Preparation (PDF document)
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis requires all couples preparing for marriage in the Catholic Church:
- to be administered a pre-marital inventory and
- to work with a sponsor couple, usually to follow-up the results of the inventory.
What is a Pre-Marital Inventory?
A pre-marital inventory is a tool that helps a couple measure their agreement and disagreement on important categories of relationship skills and knowledge. An inventory is not a test!
There are no right or wrong answers, though the results of an inventory can highlight certain areas where the couple already possesses strong relationship skills, while also pointing out areas on which the couple need to work together. Over time, these “work areas” can become relationship strengths.The results of an inventory are a “snapshot” of a relationship in a moment of time.
These results are dynamic, such that strengths today may become work areas later on and vice versa. At the same time, the inventories supported by the Office of Family Ministries have been developed and revised over time with a high degree of statistical validity. In other words, couples can be confident that the inventory will accurately reflect their relationship in general way, if the couple answers the questions honestly.
Why are Pre-Marital Inventories required?
Research has shown that the use of a pre-marital inventory in conjunction with other intentional forms of marriage preparation greatly increase a couple’s chance at marital success. Inventories point out the need for ongoing “work” throughout a couple’s life together.
Inventories raise awareness of the “5 C’s” that have been found to comprise the “crucial tasks in the early developmental stage of marriage”:
- Communication
- Commitment
- Conflict Resolution
- Children and
- Church.
The Catholic Church seeks to strengthen and protect the sanctity of marriage by encouraging couples to become fully aware of the meaning of the marriage vows:
- Permanance
- Unconditional Love
- Fidelity and
- Openness to Children.
Requiring certain forms of marriage preparation (inventories and sponsor couples) and highly recommending others (Pre-Cana Conference, Tobit weekend, and Natural Family Planning classes) is not designed to give couples “hoops” to “jump through.” Rather, ministry leaders seek to provide couples with every available resource to help them build a healthy, happy, faithful and lifelong covenant of love.
Web links:
Office of Family Ministries Support for Pre-Marital Inventories
ATTENTION Ministry Leaders and Sponsor Couples: Before contacting inventory publishers (e.g. FOCCUS Inc. or PREPARE-ENRICH), contact Dan Sarell in the Office of Family Ministries. Some resources are kept on hand for your convenience and are available at cost.
