Each year, National Marriage Week USA and World Marriage Day provide an opportunity for the Catholic Church to focus on and celebrate the vocation to marriage and family life. This year, National Marriage Week USA will be celebrated February 7-14 and World Marriage Day, which is commemorated on the second Sunday of February, will be celebrated on Sunday, February 13.
The theme for this year’s celebration of National Marriage Week is “Called to the Joy of Love,” which hearkens to the new National Pastoral Framework for Marriage and Family Life Ministry that was approved by the U.S. bishops in June 2021 and was chosen to highlight the many ways that married couples and families are accompanied by the Church to live out the call of love.
Each day of National Marriage Week, digital content will be made available through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ social media channels: Twitter (@USCCB), Facebook (www.facebook.com/usccb), and Instagram (https://instagram.com/usccb). Daily content will include a series of videos featuring how various ministries are fortifying married couples in the midst of challenges such as infertility, grief for the loss of a child, and the stressors of daily life. Live-streamed events will be available through USCCB social media channels including the recitation of the Holy Rosary for married and engaged couples and a conversation on what it means to care for a sick spouse.
For dioceses, resources available include a flyer that may be used by parishes as a bulletin insert, as well as social media graphics for download in English and Spanish here.
National Marriage Week USA, launched in 2010, is part of an international event seeking to mobilize individuals, organizations, and businesses for a common purpose to strengthen marriage in communities and influence the culture. World Marriage Day was started in 1983 by Worldwide Marriage Encounter.