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Teams of Our Lady aims to strengthen marriages in the Church (Bigstock)

Catholic couples from Colombia, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil and Australia met in Adelaide to share how lay organisation Teams of Our Lady has blessed their marriages. Source: The Catholic Leader.

Brisbane Catholics Claude and Meuris Gonsalves have been members of Teams of Our Lady since 2011 and were in Adelaide for the meeting held late last year.

Mr Gonsalves said it was an informative event where he was able to learn about how people in other parts of the world were supporting the marital vocation.

“Just sharing, especially in today’s world, how things are moving in traditional marriages,” he said.

Mr Gonsalves said Teams of Our Lady had helped their marriage in many ways.

He said there was an emphasis on the “sit-down”, where husband and wife put out all other distractions and talk to each other one on one.

Teams of Our Lady is a Catholic lay organisation founded by French priest Fr Henry Caffarel in 1939 and introduced to Australia in the 1960s.

Each team is made up of five or six couples, and sometimes a spiritual counsellor or priest, who share in each other’s struggles and joys.

The teams meet once a month in one of the couple’s homes, where they pray together and share a meal.

Mr Gonsalves said the dream was for teams to strengthen marriages for the Church community in every parish, diocese and town.

An international conference is held every six years with the next one slated for Turin, Italy, in July.

“We trust that the Spirit working through Mary and Joseph in the Holy Family will see many couples in coming years walk together and share their faith lives in Teams and our partner movements,” Mr Gonsalves said.

FULL STORY

Catholic couples meet in Adelaide to share the beauty of married vocation (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)