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Mission & Vision of Couples for Christ
Building the Church of the House and Building the Church of the Poor
Couples for Christ ”(CFC) is a Catholic lay movement that looks after the family. It was founded in Manila in June 1981 and today it is present in more than 100 countries. Although the movement was initially created to strengthen couple ties, then the need arose to involve all family members to create strong family contexts. In 1993 the family ministry was launched. This includes “Children for Christ” (from 4 to 12 years old), “Youth for Christ” ( from 13 to 21 years old), “Singles for Christ” (from 21 to 49 years old), “Servants of the Lord ”(single men over 40 years old) and“ Servants of the Lord ”(Hand made of the Lord, single women over 40 years old)
Couples for Christ (CFC) has been recognized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity at the Vatican as an International Private Association of the Faithful (click Here). CFC was one of the 50 international movements that were invited by the Vatican to the World Congress on Ecclesial Movements in May 1998 in Rome
CFC Eastern Europe is composed of the following countries – Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo¹, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine including the Russian Federation.
CFC Nordic is composed of Denmark,Iceland, Finland, Norway, & Sweden
CFC intends to carry out its work by focusing on three specific objectives.
- Individual renewal. Before one can even consider the whole family, the husband and wife first need to renew their commitment to God.
- Family renewal. As couples renew their commitment to God, they also renew their commitment to one another and to their Christian family life.
- Church renewal. As individual families are renewed, they form a network of equally committed Christian families which not only support one another but also strengthen the Church of which they are members.
Any married Catholic couple can become members of CFC. CFC draws its membership from all sectors of society, young and old, rich and poor, etc. CFC transcends all cultural, economic, educational, social, racial, national and other distinctions.
Those who want to join CFC go through a seminar called the Christian Life Program (CLP). The CLP starts with an orientation session, then normally goes through 12 weekly meetings, thus involving a total time period of 3 months. The weekly meetings are usually held in the evenings and last about 2 ½ hours per session.
The Christian Life Program (CLP) is an integrated course leading into a renewed understanding of God’s call to us as Christian couples. It is divided into 3 modules of 4 sessions each. Each session consists of a talk, group discussion, and some time for fellowship.
The different topics of the talks are as follows:
After the CLP, those who finish are invited to join CFC. When they do, they are made part of a small cell group called a household. The household is composed of from 5 to 7 couples who meet weekly for mutual support and encouragement in the Christian life, under the direction of a household leader.
The purpose of the household group is to build an environment for the support of the Christian life of couples, and to provide a means for encouraging and hastening spiritual growth. It provides friendship and brotherhood. It helps people overcome obstacles to growth in their Christian life.
There are a number of benefits:
1) Couples are renewed and strengthened in their Christian lives. Strong couples make for strong families, which make for a strong parish.
2) A basic CFC objective is to be relevant to the life of the church, specifically the parish. CFC members are expected to support the parish priest and be available for parish services.
3) CFC can be effectively used in the strategic evangelization of parishioners who are potentially strong servants and workers of the parish.
4) CFC has proven to be an effective tool for fostering unity among mandated organizations and other parish groups, by redirecting leaders to focus on the Lord rather than on their service.
5) One of CFC’s major services in the parish is pre-marriage counseling for couples about to be married. CFC uses a more personalized and thus effective couple-to-couple method.
6) CFC has renewal programs for other members of the family.
7) CFC can be a conduit for social action in the parish, one of our objectives being the economic and spiritual upliftment of the poor.
8) CFC is a working model of the Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) and can hasten the formation of a strong, vibrant parish community.
