Denver, Colo., Feb 5, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Here’s a story about Dick and Diane.
“We met in December of 1965,” Diane said.
“December 7,” Dick specified.
Dick and Diane Baumbach have been married for more than 50 years – but not every year was happy, they say.
After something of a whirlwind romance – “We told each other we loved each other after three weeks” – they were married by September of 1966, just nine months after they’d met.
Seven years later, they were each at wits’ end in the marriage and were ready to call it quits, just before they found themselves on a weekend retreat with Worldwide Marriage Encounter.
Dick was working as a journalist, and had been doing some freelancing for the local Catholic paper in New York, when he and Diane heard about Worldwide Marriage Encounter retreats through an event he’d been asked to cover. Although they weren’t going to Church at the time, the couple decided to sign up for a weekend.
“From then on our lives were totally different, we put God in our relationship and it’s made all the difference,” Diane told CNA.
Worldwide Marriage Encounter (WWME) began as a Catholic movement in Spain in the 1950s when a priest, Fr. Gabriel Calvo, began developing a series of conferences aimed at strengthening marriages. By the late 1960s, the marriage enrichment weekends were also being offered to couples in the United States, and continue to be offered today in various languages and in nearly 100 countries throughout the world.
The encounters typically consist of weekend retreats, which begin on Friday evening and end on Sunday afternoon. Couples who attend the retreats are encouraged to turn off their cellphones, and are guided through various aspects of their relationships through a series of talks by couples and priests. They are also given time to discuss everything they’ve learned privately with their spouses. Priests are also encouraged to attend a WWME weekend, to gain new insights and perspectives on marriage, in order to better pastor married couples.
This year, the movement is celebrating the 50th anniversary of marriage encounter retreats in the United States, with a special anniversary convention with the theme “We Remember, We Celebrate, We Believe.” According to the leadership team, couples and priests are registering from as far away as New Zealand and South Korea.
As many as 500 couples are expected to attend the June 22-24 weekend in Lombard, Illinois.
Since their life-changing weekend 45 years ago, the Baumbachs have been helping with the movement in some capacity ever since, giving presentations and now serving as the North American media relations coordinators.
Diane said that after nearly every weekend, there are amazing stories of transformations in the couples that have attended.
One of the highlights of the WWME 50th anniversary event will be highlighting the stories of couples or priests who have impacted, or have been impacted by, a WWME weekend.
Diane said that she particularly remembers the story of one couple who were planning to get divorced the day after their marriage encounter retreat weekend ended – they had an appointment with their lawyer at 10 a.m. on Monday, and the divorce papers all filled out and ready to go.
“They had told their children: we’re going away for this weekend, this is our last try, but while we’re gone you need to decide which person you’re going to live with – mom or dad,” Diane recalled.
But by the time the couple left their marriage encounter weekend, “they had torn up their divorce papers and they were going home to their kids as a couple,” she said.
Diane said she thinks the structure of the weekend, as well as the intensive focus on the relationship away from distractions, makes marriage encounter weekends particularly powerful.
“You’re away from the busyness of the world, you’re in a protected setting. We ask them not to get on their cellphones, just try and focus on each other,” she said.
The basic message of the weekend hasn’t changed much in 50 years, she noted, but “the atmosphere of nurturing support, and a lot of prayers, and the fact that the holy spirit is really with them on that weekend” can often provide what some couples are unable to find in counseling or therapy.
Dick and Diane said their involvement in WWME has also made them hopeful about the future of marriage – they said they see many couples who recognize the challenges that marriages and families face in today’s society, and they are earnestly seeking to strengthen their marriages.
“I think people are realizing – just like we get re-certified for our profession, we read and studied and are mentored for our careers…as the world’s pressures get greater and the attacks on the family and marriage are greater, that it’s important also that these couples get as much help as they can (in their marriages), and I think we’re seeing that,” Diane said.
Dick said if he could offer couples today any advice, it would simply be: “Love one another.”
Diane added: “Love is a decision.”
The 50th anniversary event in June is for couples who have already made at least one WWME weekend together.
“What we are hearing and reading over and over is that WWME truly impacted the lives of tens of thousands of couples and priests. We hope that as many as possible will be at the 50th Anniversary of the movement. They can then share with others the wonderful adventures they have experienced as a result of the weekend,” the convention leadership said in a press release.
“It’s a chance to try and connect all of us as we move forward in the next 50 years, it’s a time to get together with friends, but it’s also a time to look ahead to how we move forward for the next half a century,” Diane added.
Couples who have already attended at least one WWME weekend can find more information about the 50th anniversary event at https://wwme-2018-convention.myshopify.com/. Couples interested in attending a WWME weekend can find more information at: http://www.wwme.org/.
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To call this sect a Church is not a proper Catholic understanding of the word. It is a non Christian sect. To call it simply “non trinitarian religion” is insufficient. It leaves the only impression that it’s Christian just not Trinitarian.
It’s proper to express condolences but to pray for a man of a different religion is problematic.
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matt 5:44). Not that he was an enemy. But, there you go. You are correct, however, about “Church.” The LDS is not a “Church” in any truly Catholic sense; not even sure it’s an “ecclesial communion,” as the Mormon understanding of God and Christ are both deeply lacking and wrong.
Nice to know you are an expert on what God the Father knows or believes, or that one religion in which you know very little of could be the wrong one. The Nicene Creed destroyed scholarly study of scripture, deleting and dismissing entire passages based upon the desires of a pagan leader in Constantine. So you easily dismiss what we LDS faithful consider in our faith as Christ Himself actually set in place after the resurrection…that’s mighty narcissistic and vain of you to think that the corruption of the faith that draws nearer to Christ with their lips but still have their hearts far from Him, with grandeur and extreme opulence, fine garments and vainness, political gain and an army corps of pediphilics preying on vulnerable young boys and men…what hubris! Sure, The LDS church has some issues in it’s past, and even if you don’t believe our doctrine or tenets are “correct,” but still the Catholic church takes the cake when it comes to abuse of wealth, association with socialist and communist dogma, and even a strong connection with Nazism, not to mention the forced conversion of non-Catholics during the dark-ages, the crusades and inquisition. If one is forced to believe, do they truly believe? Does anyone really need a cleric to commune with God? Believe as you will, but remember…you open it up to criticism of your own faith when you attack another’s. I could give a fig what Catholics believe…I know that our Heavenly Father will sort it out…not a man.
“So you easily dismiss what we LDS faithful consider in our faith as Christ Himself actually set in place after the resurrection”
An idea with which you agree in principle, since you are so easily dismissing what we Catholic faithful believe that Christ Himself actually set in place after the Resurrection.
“The Nicene Creed destroyed scholarly study of scripture, deleting and dismissing entire passages based upon the desires of a pagan leader in Constantine.”
Flapdoodle. And the more so since it is coming from a man the founder of whose religion created his “scripture” from a hodgepodge of the King James version of the Bible and several works of fiction.
“that’s mighty narcissistic and vain of you”
Someone whose sect believes that members will become gods and form and create their own worlds is not really in a position to accuse anybody of narcissism and vanity.
“Does anyone really need a cleric to commune with God?”
For Holy Communion, yes, one does.
“I could give a fig what Catholics believe”
Which of course is why you came galloping into a Catholic board to pitch a hissy fit and throw insults because people on it have stated the plain fact that Mormon beliefs are not those of Christianity, however much they may borrow words from Christianity and then change their meanings.
“the Catholic church takes the cake when it comes to abuse of wealth”
By which you mean what? Give me examples. The Catholic Church has founded and supported charities, hospitals, schools, and many other things.
“association with socialist and communist dogma,”
Again, what exactly do you mean? That’s a nice, general statement that means nothing. Do you mean because the Church encourages sharing one’s wealth with those less fortunate?
” and even a strong connection with Nazism,”
What connection? The Nazis hated the Church, hated the Pope, and persecuted Catholics.
” not to mention the forced conversion of non-Catholics during the dark-ages,”
There were some forced conversions, and that was wrong.
“the crusades”
The Crusades were an attempt to retrieve the Holy Land from the people who took it by military force. They were not a bad thing in and of themselves.
“and inquisition.”
Which Inquisition do you mean? Against the Albigensians? The Roman Inquisition? The Spanish Inquisition? Be specific, so that your accusations can be addressed, instead of flinging words in randomly.
” an army corps of pediphilics preying on vulnerable young boys and men”
There is no “army corps” of pedophiles. There are some priests who have committed horrible sins, against the teachings of the Church. What they have done is evil. It is a sad fact that people sin.
Your founder, Joseph Smith, however, introduced, as an official tenet of Mormonism, polygamy, and convinced some of his “wives” (some of whom were already married to other men) to “marry” him by telling them that they must to secure their and their families’ salvation (Helen Mar Kimball) or by saying that he himself would be killed by an angel if he didn’t commit polygamy. Strange how so many manmade religions seem to include the idea on the founder’s part that “Cool! I get to have sexual intercourse with as many women as I want!” So, someone whose church had an official policy of promoting evil doesn’t exactly have any standing to criticize the Church because some Catholics sin.
The first Mormon who befriended me was called ‘Tiny’ late seventyish so tall he often dangled his left leg out the pickup window pistol on the dashboard and had a girlfriend. Ramah NM my new mission was built on property he sold to the Franciscans inquired where to find him told the saloon. He invite me for a drink. Baptists called drinking Mormons Jack Mormons. They were the only kind around most tough ranchers from Texas. Tiny was delighted to have a priest in the area and said he would like to ring the church bell on Sundays. His horse Hank roaming free at night would tap on my rectory steps until I appeared. Tiny burst in one day as was his wont with just cut beautiful bark timber for my altar. Needless to say I loved the old guy. I can’t say as much for the non Jack Mormon Mormons who tried to proselytize my parishioners except that their towns were neat and clean.