Absolutely. 100% correct. I’ve tried redesigning the way our parish does marriage prep, and it’s had some success, but fundamentally, marriage prep is the responsibility of parents. https://twitter.com/jefftheless/status/1341472149224210435

The best parish or diocesan program imaginable isn’t going to undo in six months a lifetime of poor catechesis, or failure of parents to set a good example in how to live marriage. We’ve heard a lot about remote and proximate participation in evil the last week.

Did you know the church also teaches that there is remote, mediate, and proximate preparation for marriage? The six month program of hoops to jump through so you can get married in church is the proximate preparation. If the other two haven’t been adequately accomplished...

...(and that starts at home from the moment your kids come out of the womb) the last will fail. It’s trying to build a house on sand.

So, what can you as parents do in your children's remote preparation for marriage? (Mediate is the dating phase...what traditionally has been known as courtship.) Here are a few suggestions.

1. Actually stay married. I know that there are situations where things simply don’t work for one reason or another and it’s best to separate. But it’s my experience that a lot of couples don’t really try to work out problems before ending in divorce court.

2. Pray with and for your children and for their future spouses.
3. Respect each other. Model for your children how to treat members of the opposite sex.
4. Have frank, healthy, discussions with your children about sex...

... Sex shouldn’t be taboo. When parents don’t discuss this with their children, they’re going to turn to Google for answers.

5. Help your adolescent children begin having healthy dating relationships. For a generation that is growing up w/ Snapchat being their primary means of social communication and Tinder being an accepted mode of finding a mate, they need to learn how to have healthy relationships.

6. Help your children actually discern a vocation...maybe God isn’t calling them to marriage in the first place.

Final word...I realize some of this can sound harsh and sound like I’m criticizing parents and/or people who have suffered the pain of divorce. I assure you, I’m not. And if my words come across that way, I apologize. But, we have a societal problem.

And society can’t begin to solve said problem until we actually name it and begin to identify solutions.