Danny May is the director of the Office of Marriage & Family Life for the Diocese of Owensboro. FILE PHOTO

BY WKC STAFF 

The Office of Marriage & Family Life of the Diocese of Owensboro has big plans for 2022, which are made even bigger by the reception of a $10,000 matching grant.

The office announced on Feb. 1, 2022 that they had received the grant from the Catholic Marriage Initiatives Fund, and that it is to be used specifically to expand existing marriage ministries or implement brand-new marriage ministries in the diocese.

The donor for the matching grant has asked to remain anonymous.

In the press release posted on owensborodiocese.org, Danny May, the director of the Office of Marriage & Family Life, stated that “Marriage ministry is a powerful tool for discipleship and evangelization.”

Through the Catholic Marriage Initiatives Fund, every diocese in the United States had the opportunity to apply for a matching grant, which could go up to $50,000. The Owensboro diocese was one of five dioceses to receive an initial $10,000 award in January 2022, which makes them eligible for additional matching grants of $20,000 in 2023 and 2024.

The grant will fund a three-year project called “Living the Joy of Marriage” which will focus on ongoing marriage enrichment in English and Spanish. May said that the grant will fund four areas in 2022: Grace Marriage, a parish-based discipleship model for English-speaking married couples; Banqueta de Boda, a one-day marriage retreat offered around the diocese for Spanish-speaking couples; Life Giving Wounds, a ministry for adult children of divorce/separation; and Red Bird Ministries, a ministry for parents affected by child loss.

In addition to celebrating this grant, May said his office is partnering with area Knights of Columbus to promote marriage and family life-based initiatives.

May said he initially connected with area Knights during Lent 2021 when his office helped coordinate a virtual Into the Breach study series, which is a men’s virtue-based program created by the Knights of Columbus.

This put him in touch with Leonard Walther, a parishioner of St. Joseph in Bowling Green and a Knights of Columbus insurance field agent. May and Walther started discussing other ways the diocesan office could collaborate with the Knights.

Currently the plan is to promote Grace Marriage involvement through the Knights’ many networks around the Diocese of Owensboro, though May says much more is coming down the road.

Learn more at https://www.catholicmarriagefund.org/.

Originally printed in the March 2022 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.