The Roman Catholic Diocese of Owensboro is investing $100,000 in “building stronger marriages” across western Kentucky. Half of the funds were raised with help from community partners, while the other half came via a matching grant from the Catholic Marriage Initiative.
The grant funds are to be used specifically for marriage ministry. Last week, the Diocese of Owensboro Office of Marriage & Family Life deposited the final donation to fully fund their end of the $50,000 match.
“Part of the grant requirement was that our end of the match had to be new money. In other words, we couldn’t just move money around in our budget. We had to go out and raise it,” said Director of Marriage & Family Life Danny May. “Thankfully, we have awesome community and ministry partners who were willing to help us take full advantage of this opportunity as well as many generous donors who believe in strengthening marriages and were willing to support this match financially.”
The $50,000 raised by the Diocese was a collaboration of community partners including the Michael Horn Family Foundation, 14 local Knights of Columbus councils, the Catholic Foundation of Western Kentucky, Owensboro Health Community Health mini-grant, and 14 private donors.
Diocese of Owensboro Bishop William F. Medley said the Diocese heavily invests in marriage through this project.
“It’s important to focus on keeping ‘good’ marriages healthy through accompaniment,” he said. “The Church has long called for marriage formation to be ongoing, continuing after marriage preparation and the Sacrament of Matrimony, dating back to John Paul II’s encyclical, Familiaris Consortio (1981).”
One of the aspects of the grant project was increasing Grace Marriage participants in the Diocese of Owensboro. Grace Marriage is a parish-based, ongoing, small group model for marriage ministry where couples spend intentional time together to assess, engage, and grow in their marriage.
“To date, 200 couples in the Diocese of Owensboro have participated in at least 1 year of Grace Marriage,” May said. “When we found out about this grant, we had 55 couples in Grace Marriage in five parishes in the Owensboro area. Using grant support, we have since expanded to all corners of our Diocese. Three more locations are beginning in the first quarter of 2024.”
To increase participation, the Office of Marriage & Family Life held “come and see” events — funded by grant money — in 4 locations across the Diocese and then trained parish teams in those locations.
“Once we did that, we hit the tipping point and other parishes started reaching out to us to build a marriage ministry using Grace Marriage,” May said.
In addition to expanding Grace Marriage, other grant projects include launching Red Bird Ministries, a ministry for child loss; launching Life-Giving Wounds, a ministry for adult children of divorce and separation; expanding marriage retreats in Spanish; and incorporating a balance of vision, skills, and support in existing marriage preparation and marriage enrichment programs.
“Our hearts overflow with profound gratitude to all the donors who made this grant possible,” said Valeria Vessels, Director of Stewardship & Development for the Diocese. “Your selfless contributions will guide and strengthen the bonds of marriages throughout the diocese. Thank you for sharing your blessings.”
The Diocese of Owensboro was one of the first five Dioceses in the country to be selected in the first round of funding from the Catholic Marriage Initiative grant in 2022.
May said grant applications had to demonstrate that the marriage ministry initiatives in the grant project need to have a balance of “vision, skills, and support” across marriage preparation and marriage enrichment.
