As their wedding day approaches, young Catholics feel ready to join their future spouse in an exciting new partnership. They consider themselves to be mature individuals ready, willing and able to take on board all that their marriage can offer. However, after many years involved in parish-based marriage preparation I believe that some who are about to enter marriage have little idea of what might lie around the corner. They have a naïve appreciation of the difficulties, anxieties, shocks and upsets that will inevitably test their relationship as they face the challenges presented by today’s complicated world whilst striving to keep alive the love they share.

Moreover, I have concluded that too many have confused and distorted ideas about what the Roman Catholic Church believes, teaches, requires and expects from them during this crucial stage in their lives.

Perhaps this situation is predictable given the influence of powerful forces and ideologies which compete for their attention and the disharmony existing within the Church itself, where even the hierarchy hold divergent views and contradictory positions about its nature and purpose.

This book considers the way in which ordinary Catholics, faced with so much pressure, ambiguity and conjecture, often struggle to navigate a course through the chaotic melting-pot which characterises modern life and might, on some occasions, question or even deny the Church’s determination to interfere in their personal and private lives.