Who We Are
The PMRC
Fr. Chuck Gallagher, S.J.
Archbishop Joseph F Naumann, DD
Ron and Kathy Feher
Fr. Mickey Genovese, OSA
The PMRC
The Pastoral and Matrimonial Renewal Center (PMRC) is an international network of priests and couples founded by Fr. Chuck Gallagher, S.J. who design, develop, promote and facilitate life-changing and empowering parish-based programs, retreats, and resources focused on the Sacrament of Matrimony as a model and prophetic sign to the church. Funded in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we integrate the latest research from the sciences with the rich wisdom of the church. Our approach is to provide practical applications of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body presented in the language of the culture and fleshed out with authentic witness.
The heart of the PMRC is a growing base of couples striving to live passionate sacramental marriages in order to evangelize the next generation while making Christ’s presence manifest in our own families and parishes.
The mission of the PMRC extends to the entire Body of Christ and is focused on evangelization, conversion, empowerment, and lay leadership training.
Fr. Chuck Gallagher, S.J.
Fr. Chuck Gallagher is the founding director of the PMRC. He has been a compelling and prophetic voice in the Catholic Church for the Sacrament of Matrimony and the joy of the incarnation for over five decades.
Fr. Chuck is most famous as the originator and driving force behind the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement that envisioned a renewal in the church through the Sacrament of Matrimony. Beginning in the 1960’s and 1970’s and continuing to the present day, WWME changed the lives of millions of couples and a significant number of priests while spreading to all 50 states and around the world to 56 foreign countries.
A prolific author who is at once keenly insightful and disarmingly relevant, Fr. Chuck is an extraordinary public speaker whose warmth and humor have captivated, thrilled, and roused audiences of tens of thousands. He is most at home in living rooms with the everyday Catholic families to whom he has given his life and to whom his only desire is to bring the Father’s joy.
As early as 1975, Fr. Chuck began to explore with couples concepts like “the language of the body” that were later articulated by Pope John Paul II in what is now known as the Theology of the Body. Fr. Chuck’s seminal book “One Flesh” published in 1980 holds up the Sacrament of Matrimony as the living sign that reveals the church to itself.
A man of vision and relentless passion, Fr. Chuck’s work has had a lasting impact on the church and left a legacy of significant leadership training and empowerment of the laity.
Archbishop Joseph F Naumann, DD
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas is the current Episcopal Moderator for the PMRC. His passion for marriage and family life is reflected in his avid support for the Living in Love Program Suite in his own diocese and his leadership role on the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. Most recently, he has accepted the Chairmanship of the USCCB Pro Life Committee.
Archbishop Naumann has a shepherds heart for his people and is a remarkable father to his fellow clergy.
Ron and Kathy Feher
Ron and Kathy Feher currently serve as the Directors of the PMRC in the United States. They have been joyfully married for over 41 years and are the parents of 10 children.
Involved with the PMRC since its earliest beginnings, Ron and Kathy have worked in evengelization, catechesis, parish renewal, and parishioner empowerment at the parish, diocesan, national, and international level in the Catholic Church as speakers, adult facilitators, retreat masters, and weekly columnists. They are the authors of Living in Love, Living in Love Every Day, Preparing to Live in Love, and Matrimony, An Invitation to Live in Love.
Brad and Libby Dupont
Brad and Libby Dupont will become Directors of the PMRC starting in January of 2021. Their evangelizing spirit was formed in Net Ministries, and their experience of Diocesan functions and organization come from Parish Ministry and 10 years of work as Marriage and Family Life Consultants for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. They created and attained national recognition for “The Joyful Marriage Project” promoting marriage initiatives in KCK. Brad and Libby bring youthful energy and social media awareness to bear on the challenges of reaching the younger generation of married couples.
Fr. Anthony (Mickey) Genovese, OSA served as Pastoral Advisor for the PMRC Executive Steering Committee in the United States since 2000. Deeply funded in the spirituality of relationship and a powerfully faith-filled visionary, Fr Mickey brought a wealth of experience as a priest, pastor, and Provincial of the Order of Saint Augustine in North America to the overall direction of the PMRC.
While pastor of St Thomas of Villanova Parish in Rosemont, PA in the early 1990’s, after witnessing the dramatic conversion in the lives of married couples who had experienced Living in Love in his parish, Fr. Mickey asked Ron and Kathy Feher to develop “Preparing to Live in Love” for the engaged. Later, on the parish mission circuit, he actively promoted the Movement of Continuous Prayer for Marriage and Family and spread it to thousands of Catholics in parishes around the country.
