Marriage and Family Life Supplement
Events and programs keep Tell City Deanery focused on marriage and family
Bill and Eva Guillaume of Holy Cross Parish in St. Croix pose at a reception at St. Paul Parish in Tell City following a special Mass last October celebrated by Archbishop Charles C. Thompson for couples of the Tell City Deanery married for 50 or more years. The Guillaumes have been married for 69 years. (Submitted photo)
By Natalie Hoefer
The Tell City Deanery spreads across Crawford and Perry counties and portions of Spencer County in the southwest corner of the archdiocese. More than 2,100 families find their faith home in one of the predominantly rural region’s 10 parishes.
Whether rural, suburban or urban, all Catholic families share the same ministerial needs and hallmarks: marriage preparation, milestone anniversaries of sacramental marriage and raising holy families.
This article focuses on just three of the ways the
Tell City Deanery and its parishes support marriage and the family: a new Witness to Love marriage preparation program at the parishes of St. Paul in Tell City and
St. Mark in Perry County; consecration to the Holy Family at the faith communities of St. Isidore the Farmer in
Perry County and Holy Cross in St. Croix; and a deanery-wide Mass celebrated by Archbishop Charles C. Thompson for couples celebrating 50 years or more of marriage.
‘Adaptable and still fruitful’
When it comes to marriage preparation, Father Anthony Hollowell likes to provide various options at St. Paul and St. Mark parishes, which he serves as pastor.
“We get so many situations with our engaged couples,” he explains. “Our [marriage preparation] programs vary to meet the variety of situations engaged couples come to us with.”
So, when Gabriela Ross, director of the archdiocesan Office of Marriage and Family Life, told Father Hollowell about the Witness to Love marriage preparation program a year ago, he researched it.
“I was attracted to the fact it’s based off Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ ” he says. “I thought that was very wise to build on the foundation of the wisdom of [a successor of] Peter and to have best practices applied to the local culture. It’s very adaptable and still fruitful.”
He notes a unique feature of the program is that the couple chooses their own mentor couple—a couple they admire as model witnesses of sacramental marriage.
The engaged couple completes an inventory then meets with their mentor couple monthly for six months to discuss a book that is part of the program, with a workbook providing “homework” for the engaged couples between meetings.
Father Hollowell says he has heard positive feedback from the 10 couples who have completed the program.
As current mentors of two engaged couples through St. Mark, Mary Lee and Houston Smith also praise the program.
“It teaches [engaged couples] about virtues like patience, understanding, commitment, plus things like communication, finances [and] parenthood,” says Mary Lee. “If couples aren’t talking enough to know and understand each other, this book opens up conversations they can talk about and maybe see things they want to do better.”
The Smiths, who will celebrate their 53rd wedding anniversary on March 2, say the book included in the Witness to Love program has benefited them as well as the engaged couples.
“It’s made us look at our lives a little different,” says Houston. “The balance, the commitment of marriage—it opens your eyes.”
Mary Lee agrees, saying the program “has made us have more conversations. It opens doors to think about things you don’t think about otherwise—even after 53 years.”
The program also “creates a close bond of friendship” between the engaged and mentor couple, she notes.
“We just finished our last chapter [with one of the engaged couples],” says Mary Lee. “They said, ‘We don’t want to quit,’ and we said, ‘We don’t either.’ We’re talking about continuing to meet once a month after the wedding.”
“It’s just a very good program,” Houston adds. “We recommend it to any engaged couple.”
Life ‘interconnected with the Holy Family’
About eight years ago, two seemingly unconnected events led to a beautiful focus on the family in two Perry County parishes.
The first event occurred late in 2017 when the Knights of Columbus organization launched a Consecration to the Holy Family program for parishes. Its goal is to revitalize faith communities by encouraging families “to devote themselves to the ideal model of familial love set by Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” according to the Knights’ website.
The following summer, St. Martin of Tours Parish in Siberia was merged with St. Isidore the Farmer Parish.
“We were looking for programs to unite the [members of the] combined parishes,” says Ryan Borden, a member of St. Isidore. As head of family programs for the parish’s Knights of Columbus Fr. Timothy Sweeney Council #17069 at the time, the new Holy Family consecration came to mind.
He received approval from the parish’s pastor, Benedictine Father Luke Waugh. Then he set the wheels in motion for the consecration to take place on the feast of the Holy Family, the Sunday after Christmas—although the consecration can be made anytime throughout the year.
“Everyone thinks the consecration is a one-day thing, but it’s actually a one-week process,” explains Borden, a fourth-degree Knight who has held several positions with his parish’s council, including past Grand Knight.
Material is handed out to parishioners a week prior to the consecration. It explains the consecration, promotes daily prayer and discussion in the family, and encourages each family member to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.
The consecration takes place after Mass on the designated day.
“The Knights hand out a card with the prayer,” Father Luke explains. “After Mass, I bless the congregation, then everyone says the prayer.”
The consecration doesn’t end there, Braden emphasizes. Families are encouraged to continue praying together regularly, perhaps creating a small altar or corner in the home “for prayer and meditation, with a crucifix or small statue,” he says.
“I have friends say they started praying more with their family at home” after the consecration, Braden says. “That helps a lot of the kids see it’s alright to practice your faith more than just going to Mass.”
Consecration to the Holy Family has taken place at St. Isidore and at Holy Cross Parish in St. Croix—where Father Luke is also pastor—almost every year since 2018.
“I think within our parish communities, it helps the understanding that there’s a deep spirit of family life that is interconnected with the Holy Family,” he says. “It has been a big blessing at my parishes.”
‘Moments to be cherished’
Each year the archdiocese hosts a Wedding Anniversary Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis, almost always with the current archbishop as the principal celebrant.
But the cathedral is about a three-hour drive from the
Tell City Deanery.
“That’s quite a trip for people to make from here, especially when they’re older,” says Becky Hubert, a member of St. Mark Parish.
She thinks it was her position on the parish council that led a parishioner to tell her in 2021, “We should have an anniversary celebration like they do in Indianapolis,” Hubert recalls. “She planted a seed in my mind” for a locally-held, deanery-wide wedding anniversary Mass with the archbishop.
Hubert took the idea to the council.
“One of the goals for the [archdiocesan] pastoral plan at the time was recognizing and celebrating marriage,” says Father Hollowell. “Becky pointed out that we had a lot of couples who’d been married a long time. I was surprised at the numbers—the deanery had over 200 couples married for 50 or more years.”
The idea was approved. Hubert formed and headed a committee, and in 2022 the first Tell City Deanery Wedding Anniversary Mass honoring couples celebrating 50 or more years of marriage was celebrated with Archbishop Charles C. Thompson in St. Paul Church, followed by a reception in the parish hall.
The celebration was held a second time at St. Paul last fall, again with the archbishop. The plan is to continue the tradition every five years going forward.
“With the archbishop and other deanery parishes involved and the music, it’s an awe-inspiring experience,” says Hubert.
She also noticed older couples from different parishes interacting at the reception.
“At their age, many don’t have that opportunity to visit with others from other parishes,” she says.
Father Hollowell notes the celebration uplifts families, too.
“I’ve heard several people say, ‘The last time we had a photo with Mom and Dad was that Mass,’ or ‘That was the last time all the family got together was that Mass,’ ” he says. “They were grateful to have that opportunity. Those are moments to be cherished.”
About 90 couples celebrating milestone anniversaries attended the Mass last fall, says Hubert—including her and her husband Paul.
“It was our 50th anniversary, so the Mass took on a different meaning for me this time,” she says.
Father Hollowell credits Hubert for her leadership in turning an “abstract idea” from the former archdiocesan pastoral plan “into a real celebration for couples. It’s made a real impact on how marriage is understood and celebrated in the area.”
Hubert in turn credits the “wonderful, talented” members of the event’s planning committee.
But in the end, what matters most is celebrating the love of family, she says.
“Every day is a gift,” says Hubert. “Getting to celebrate it with your loved ones makes it even more special.” †
See more from our 2026 Marriage and Family Life Supplement
