Pre-cana Online?

We didn’t do it online, but in person ours was just a day, 8 hrs plus lunch.
We’re in Nashville TN

We did Pre-Cana online through catholicmarriageprep.com. We're in Fort Worth diocese (TX). It took a few months, we would do a module on our own time, the mentors would review and give us feedback within 3 days, then we'd do the next module, etc. I think there was around 8 modules. However, I just saw that because of covid the Fort Worth Diocese is offering online class through Zoom that's completed in 1 day because it's formatted like the in person one I presume. Check your diocese website they might have something like that

We did ours in person, over a weekend. (We did not, in the end, get married in the Church.)

If you can do it online, do that. We had a *terrible* time, our pre-cana was dreadfully run, and I'm not Christian... but nothing was explained to me. DH spent more time explaining basic Catholic vocabulary to me than we did actually "exploring our relationship" (...literally everything they tried to talk to us about was either already covered in our couples' counseling, or irrelevant in the extreme). I was not the only non-Christian there, and the leaders knew that, but they could not be bothered to make sure we even knew what was going on.

We did one in upstate NY.

Following because I haven't done mine yet! My church is being a bit weird about the timing of things--we reached out in early June for a September 2021 date & they told us to come back 6 months before to discuss paperwork & pre-cana. They did say, due to COVID, we could do online pre-cana before meeting with the priest, but that they prefer couples to do it in person and after speaking with the priest. So we're trying to stick with that process (although I suspect we'll end up doing it online anyway with how COVID is going...). The 2021 dates for our diocese (Boston) haven't been posted yet.

We ultimately did not get married in the Church, but our parish said absolutely no online pre-Cana, even with covid. It would have been an 8-hour retreat with other couples getting married soon and then meeting with an older couple from our parish 4-5 times to discuss the results of the FOCCUS questionnaire.

Ours offered a couple online options. haven't looked much into it yet because we're planning for 2022. We're in NJ

View Quoted Comment I see they have both online and in class options. I prefer online, but I was concerned if we would have a good experience. How much time before the wedding do you have to complete it?

View Quoted Comment That’s interesting especially since now they have the option of online pre-cana. Thank you for the heads up about the retreat. I’m curious how they will factor that in to an online course. Do you think you and your husband will annul you’re marriage since you did not get married in the church?

View Quoted Comment Good luck. I inquired about the online pre-Cana and it seems like an easy process. Would you like me to send you the link my diocese provided me?

View Quoted Comment I’m sorry you had a terrible experience. I hope the diocese allowed you to provide feedback on your experience so they can improve. I appreciate you sharing your experience it has helped me to understand whether or not in person or online is for us. Ideally, we want to choose a service that helps us to grow as a couple.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for suggesting the zoom setting. I am definitely going to look into it. I appreciate your feedback.

View Quoted Comment It appears 8 hours in the standard amount of time that it takes. Thank you for your response. I appreciate your feedback.

View Quoted Comment We were asked to provide our thoughts, but were rushed through them, and I'm 99% certain no one saw our recommendations.


As I said, we did NOT end up getting married in the church, so...
Yeah, I found the experience the complete opposite of helpful. But a LOT of that was how ours was run... and that I am not Christian..

View Quoted Comment The deacon is going to reach back out to us next spring. Our wedding is September 2022. Given the ongoing situation, online will be very preferable.