By Leonard Teel

Convinced that couples about to be married don’t get enough professional advice, one Atlanta Catholic church this week will begin offering expert counseling on medical problems and some likely husband-wife conflicts after the honeymoon.

The counseling is part of the new city-wide Marriage Catechumenate offered at Sacred Heart Church, 335 Ivy Street, N.E.

“In a day when family life has been so widely attacked, the need for preparing our young people for Christian marriage is greater than ever,” the Rev. John J. Mulroy, pastor of Sacred Heart, explained.

For three years, priests in his parish have been relying upon expert counselors. With the approval of the archbishop, the Saturday evening sessions are being offered to any couples in the archdiocese, Fr. Mulroy said.

The first session runs from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. After four meetings, the series begins again in November.

One counselor, Julia Hogan, director of Catholic Family Services, will discuss some of the problems of couples whose marriages got into trouble.

“She’ll tell them, look, these are the problems I see in my office and this is why they’re fighting and this is why they’re breaking up,” Fr. Mulroy said.

A married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Brieske, who have counseled at pre-marriage conferences in South Carolina, will discuss their own marriage. They have three children.

The physician’s view of marriage will be discussed by Dr. Al Krotoski who works with the malaria program of the U.S. Public Health Department in Atlanta. Dr. Krotoski and his wife participated in pre-marriage conferences in Panama.

“Talking about medical problems, you do need a doctor,” Fr. Mulroy says. “You can ask a doctor to sacrifice an evening for several couples whereas you couldn’t get him to do it for each one.”

“When else can you sit down for an hour and a half and talk to a doctor free of charge?”

In addition, one session conducted by Rev. Eusebius Beltran, head of the matrimonial tribunal of the archdiocese, is concerned with “Christ’s View of Marriage” -- one husband, one wife, one divorce, and Christ’s various messages about the sacrament of marriage.

Fr. Mulroy himself will conduct the first of the four sessions, “Beginning Your Marriage,” discussing the sacrament, and giving an outline of the ceremony and the required documents.

“Other cities have been offering this sort of professional counseling for years,” Fr. Mulroy said. “Atlanta is about the only city that hasn’t had it. We never had that many people getting married. We haven’t had that many Catholics.”