We are a group of people in the Catholic Church who believe that Matrimony & Holy Orders are wonderful vocations. We present weekends for married couples, religious & priests & show this through personal example. By going on such a weekend, any couple, religious or priest is able to take responsibility for what is happening in their lives & develop or renew the joy available to them.

South African Marriage Encounter is part of a World Wide movement & is in 87 countries through out the world.

Marriage Encounter has its origin with a Spanish priest in 1952. He developed a series of conferences for married couples. The focus was on developing a honest relationship between the spouses & to live out their sacramental relationship in a service to the people around them. At the end of each presentation he would give them a question to help them to look at what he had been teaching them in that talk about their relationship.

In 1966 it spread to Venezuela & from there to the Spanish speaking couples in the United States & by 1969 it had spread to the English speaking part of the States & Canada. Under the leadership of Father Chuck Gallagher & a couple the movement spread quickly. In 1971 the decision was made to expand it to Europe & quickly it became World Wide Marriage Encounter.

The first weekend in South Africa was held in 1978 in Marianhill in Natal & a year later we had our first weekend in the old Transvaal. Couples from the USA were generous as to offer their time & money to come & introduce ME in our country, but they asked us that we should help in spreading it to other countries of the continent.

South Africa helped to start M.E in other countries for example in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Namibia, Mauritius & Botswana.

Here in South Africa weekends are held in various regions in English, Zulu. Sotho, Xhosa.