By Michelle Martin
Staff Writer

Catholic couples in the Archdiocese of Chicago have had some form of marriage preparation for more than 50 years.

Now a bill under consideration by the Illinois Senate could mandate premarital education for most couples who marry in Illinois.

The bill would encourage couples to get at least four hours of premarital education, focusing on communication skills and ways to resolve conflicts, from a religious institution or behavioral health professional. Those who do would be able to marry immediately upon receiving a license; those who don’t would have to wait 60 days.

The bill makes exceptions in cases of late-term pregnancy, severe illness or when both partners are over 55, said Sen. John J. Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat.

The bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee March 20 and could come up for a vote of the whole Senate shortly.

The idea came from a think tank on marriage and divorce issues started by Chicago divorce attorneys who wanted to reduce the divorce rate.

“The best thing we can do to halt divorce is to strengthen marriage,” said attorney Gemma Allen, one of the think tank’s founders. “To make it more difficult to get a divorce, that just isn’t realistic. It’s hard to go back on societal change.”

One way to strengthen marriage is to improve couples’ communication skills, she said.

Cullerton, a Catholic who went to PreCana before his marriage, introduced a similar bill in 1999. That bill also made it out of the judiciary committee, but failed to pass the senate by six votes. This time, with support from the Catholic Conference of Illinois and the Illinois Family Institute, the bill’s chances have improved.

Getting those groups on board might help persuade lawmakers who are leery of government involvement in private lives, he said.

There’s a real interest in keeping the divorce rate down, he said, because of the cost of increased social services and higher poverty rates among divorced families.

Cullerton acknowledged that there is no statistical evidence showing whether premarital education can change the divorce rate.

Several states have either introduced or passed pre-marital education bills. Florida passed the first bill in 1999, but it’s too soon to find out what effect it has had, Allen said.

Allen and other think-tank members hope that premarital education could decrease the divorce rate in Illinois by 30 percent.

Deacon Larry Spohr and his wife, Frances, have served on the think-tank and have been facilitating PreCana sessions since 1978.

Many couples lack communication skills, Frances Spohr said, and many of them have not talked about the important issues they must face together.

“Money is still a big one,” she said. “And in-laws are a big issue.”

The best tool the Spohrs have found to bring out these issues is a marriage “inventory,” she said.

Frank Hannigan, archdiocesan director of Family Ministries and the Cana Conference, said the inventory, the mandatory marriage preparation session and additional meetings with the priest or deacon who will perform the ceremony all ensure that Catholic couples more than meet the requirements of the bill.

“We do more than just the communication and conflict resolution parts of it,” Hannigan said. “We believe marriage is a sacrament, and we talk about what that means. We’ve been ahead of the curve on this for quite a few years.”