How to Date in Holiness: Pope Francis' Advice for Successful Catholic Courtships

If you are engaged and you and your partner hope to lead a holy married life, these tips from Pope Francis are for you.

In the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the Holy Father explained some of the most important things that couples should know upon formalizing a relationship in hopes of leading a full Catholic life.

What Pope Francis proposes for a Catholic courtship

First, Pope Francis remembers that in courtship, “chastity is a precious condition for the genuine growth of interpersonal love.”

In this sense, the Holy Father points out that “when love becomes a mere attraction or a diffuse affectivity, this causes spouses to suffer extraordinary fragility when affectivity enters a crisis or when physical attraction wanes.”

This is why you should know what you truly love about the person with whom you share your time.

Then, the Holy Father invites us to “recognize incompatibilities or risks [of courtship]. In this way, it is possible to warn that it is not reasonable to bet on this relationship, so as not to expose oneself to a foreseeable failure that will have very painful consequences”.

How can one recognize these risks that could lead to future disappointments?

Speaking of “what each one expects of a possible marriage, of his way of understanding what love and commitment are, of what is desired of the other, of the type of life in common that he would like to project”.

“These conversations can help to see that in reality the points of contact are few, and that the mere mutual attraction will not be enough to sustain the union,” adds Pope Francis.

Finally, it is necessary to “detect the signs of danger that the relationship could have, to find resources before the marriage that allow us to face them successfully.”

If they see each other’s weaknesses, “there needs to be realistic confidence in the possibility of helping [the other] to develop the best of himself to counteract the weight of his weaknesses, with a firm interest in promoting him as a human being,” concludes the Holy Father.

If you do all this, rest assured that your courtship will lead you to a beautiful married life.