That is a misconception that Retrouvaille is religion-based. It is not based on religion. It is supported financially by the Catholic Church. The things that you are taught at a Retrouvaille weekend are not Catholic doctrine. They are secular. The topic is marriage. They talk about their lives, and they teach you to dialogue. I am Jewish, and I still don't know what my husband is. We are happily married graduates of the program, and the affiliation with the Church had no influence on us. There is an optional Mass Saturday morning, that we did not attend. And there is a closing Mass on Sunday afternoon, that we also did not attend. There are approximately 18 couples at each Retrouvaille session. Many of them appreciate the presence of the priest and want to talk privately with him. He is there for those people. We were polite to the priest at our session, he was a nice guy, and we talked to him about his travels, but we did not get religious counseling there.
