De Paul Evangelization Center

This place was nice it is a bit tiring so be prepared for that. If u make it fun it will be fun. Their is a loooong break for Urselfs. For sleeping time is a bit hard to go to sleep on the first day. I enjoyed it n I hope you do too. The best part of this is I learn a lot about marriage and union

Bring a extra blanket and sandals for the showers. It’s an older building. The food was better than expected

My Fiancée and I came to the De Paul Center for our engaged encounter weekend. We really loved the program and advise all engaged couples to attend! Since this review is for the facility and not the program, I want to say some words about the place. I looked at the reviews before I came to the site, so I already knew what the dorming situation was going to be like. I didn’t mind it. I’m just happy that there was hot water in the showers. The facility is a bit old, built in the 1950s or so. I love the fact our retreat was at a Catholic center. I wouldn’t want it any other way… especially not at a hotel. It just distract the whole process. At our last day, I was packing and cleaning when I found tiny ants on my shelving unit in the closet! :(That was horrible! I couldn’t believe it. That was the only down side of it. I just hope they get enough money to do some upgrades for the place. Other than that, the program of the engaged encounter was beautiful! :)

We stayed for the engaged encounter weekend. The facilities were a seminary high school for a good 30 years people, that’s why it looks like a high school!
The bedsheets and the blankets provided were clean, but they were thin for sure, so bring an extra. The water pressure was better than we expected, and there was usually enough hot water. Pretty much everything was clean.
The food was what you would expect from a cafeteria, but they fed us often and plenty (unless the main dish ran out lol, but they still had plenty of the side dishes). The staff was very nice.
The host couples provided toiletries for those of us who forgot or needed over the counter medication. We were seated a lot on chairs that made you sore after two days of writing, but they did the best they could to make the course enjoyable.
Joe was awesome!

Earlier this summer we had the pleasure of attending the Engaged Encounter. It was fulfilling and helped us focus on our future marriage in a more religious way. Attempt in any way possible to volunteer for readings or anything really it’ll keep you active sitting for l I need petiods. The days are long and the writing is incessant but the core of the program and values taken away are wonderful.
The facility it self is what you would expect from an older less funded parish; this should not take away from the experience but help in your appreciation for life and all you have. I never had any problems beside rolling over into the wall wanting to hug my future husband, I guess my mind and body we’re comfortable enough to think we were still home, although he was in the men’s dormitory :-) I experienced the water heating system sufficient, even when i woke up a little late, do bring your own hair dryer though.
The food was palpable and simple, very nice ladies in the kitchen doing their best with the budget provided. Best days for us was the roasted chicken and pistachio ice cream :-)
Keep your bag simple, your heart and mind humble and open. If you’re going to complain, dont, just DONATE!

Just finished the engaged encounter and wanted to share my thoughts.
1) Dorms– are small but private. You get the feeling you’re in a cubicle with shower curtain for doors. This means you can hear EVERYTHING! Ear plugs do help and they have them available for you. The sleeping place is small but it is private. I suggest bringing your own sheets, blanket, and pillow.
2) bathrooms– there is a communal shower but they are private. Bring your own flip flops to shower in, bathrobe, and towel.
3) clothing– wear something comfortable. You will be sitting in a classroom/​seminar room for many hours and you don’t want to feel comfortable.
4)class– get ready to write all weekend long! I did like and enjoy some of the writing and sharing at the beginning but at some point it gets to be too much. Some couples seemed to enjoy it, but my fiancé and I got a bit tired towards the end.
5) food– the food isn’t as bad as other people reviewed. I wouldn’t say it’s the best, but most people seemed to think it was okay. There is a snack counter that everyone shares and there is more than enough things to snack on. There are many refrigerators/​microwaves throughout the facility in case you have special diets and need to bring your own food.
Schedule– wake up time is early because of early mass, 7:30, or breakfast 8 am. Bedtime is around 11pm. You are in class mode most of the day. You hear a lecture/​presentation for 20 minutes, write for 20 minutes, and share with your fiancé for 20 min. This model happens several times throughout the retreat.
The retreat can be enjoyable if you open yourself to the experience and are patient.
Try to be respectful of others and their time to rest.
My biggest complain of the weekend was the lack of sleep. Like previously stated, you can hear everything in the dorms. It was difficult to sleep when some girls went to sleep late and made a lot of noise and others woke up at 5am to begin getting ready.

I just finished the Engaged Encounter with my fiancé and i really enjoyed our retreat. The actual place here isnt so bad as some Unilocalers say. I was so scared to stay here the first night bc of what they said it would be. The girls dorms are not bad they are like cubicles with shower rods as doors but it really isnt that bad as i sounds lol i do recommend to bring your own blankets bc it gets cold and they give you a thin small blanket. Also a towel and flip flops for when you shower. The restrooms werent bad and the showers ran hot water for everyone, didnt run out. Earplugs are a must bc you could hear everyone in the dorm snoring eeek :/​friday we get here do some activities and go to sleep at 11:30pm and wake up at 6:45 and go to mass. Yeah that wasnt fun but its ok. After mass we go eat breakfast. Its eggs, oatmeal, sausage, and some cereal etc. Not much of an option. Lunch was salad, beans, rice, grond beef tacos, and fruit. Food over all was whatever but we have a snack room to eat all weekend if we want with a bunch of chips candy fruit etc.
As for the actual activies for the couples go it was great. We came here bc we had to but honestly it was so nice to focus on us for a weekend, since we are so busy during the week. You talk about topics in where you arent compatible and just be honest with each other, if you havent been already.
Just come with a open heart and mind and focus on who maters most, your fiancé!

Just finishing up engagement retreat. I recommend you do anything you can to do a one day retreat. This weekend trip is horrible it’s like school we started this am at 730 and didn’t finish till 1030… It’s terrible!
Sleeping is dormitory style with girls in one building and boys in another. The beds are cubicle style. You have your own closet to store things but no outlet to charge phone. Have to use random outlets in hallways or classroom.
Food is nothing to write home about. If you are vegetarian forget it! There are no options besides oatmeal for breakfast, salad with slimmy lettuce for lunch and again salad with slimmy lettuce for dinner and green beans. More poor fiancé starved all weekend. Everyone is required to bring a snack to share, so one good thing is there are a lot of bomb snacks. Weekend is so boring i basically have been snaking in order to stay awake.
This retreat is beneficial if you have not been dating your fiancé for long and still need to get to know each other. Otherwise it’s pointless. Father norm and Joe are more entertaining to listen to.
FYI while I was sitting outside at night I saw multiple cockroaches running around everywhere near dorm rooms. Make sure you check under your bed and keep bags closed.

We just finished our retreat weekend at the De Paul Center in Montebello– an older seminary campus the Engaged Encounter uses for their retreat.
This review is for the facilities, not for the retreat experience.
We arrived Friday night after a struggle to find this place! The directions from Google Maps were inaccurate and we got lost in an industrial area that made me feel like we would be shanked! The area around the De Paul center IS safe!
The reason we didn’t use the directions provided because the 605 freeway had bad traffic so we took our own detour.
The campus itself is large with many buildings, and plenty of parking. Most of the time was spent in a classroom-​like area for lectures. We also had «reflection time» by the pool. The building itself had nice grounds (grass, trees, and flowers) But inside the buildings it was clearly old and run-​down.
Both of the male and female dorm bathrooms were old and not very clean. The showers provided us privacy but little water pressure. The sleeping arrangements were very new to me. I didn’t have a problem with my space or the bedding, but have provided tips for a comfortable stay:
Bring Flip Flops for the showers
Bring a blanket for your bed (i didn’t use the bedding they provided)
Bring a bath robe
Bring your own towels because the ones provided are small
There are NO outlets in your room, i know because I checked my room in the dark at night. I charged my cell phone in the outlets provided in the bathrooms.
GUYS– This place has small beds and tiny showers, Big and Tall’s beware.
The food served in the cafeteria was very bland and safe, because of dietary sensitivities. My boyfriend was showering everything with pepper and Tapatio sauce all weekend.

It has cafeteria, dormitory and swiming pool includes also parking facilities and gym also. overall it is a nice church place. One can spend time here very comfortably for a long time. I have habit to visit this from years. but the main problem lies with its management. It is not clean enough and the cafeteria provides only a few chosen items. Water here is also a big problem for the visitors. That’s why the place is not crowded with populace.

engaged couples or married couples a must go will help you settle things and make you aware, was a great weekend,

I’m with Tin N. here… not sure why people are rating the Engaged Encounter either when this is a retreat center that accommodates hundreds of functions every year.
That said, my guy and I did come here for the CEE weekend. That in itself is a story best saved for a campfire, meat on a stick, laughter, and booze. Lemme tell you, that weekend would be hilarious in the eyes of Dr. Phil and Ellen DeGeneres, but I digress.
The facility itself is a bit old and a little worse for wear. Keeping in mind, though, that the funding for this facility is through the Diocese and not through any grants or government funding, its easy to see that upkeep decisions would be made on the frugal side.
What I liked about the De Paul Center:
~ It’s cozy. Has a high-​school-​campus feel about it.
~ The meeting rooms are large and air conditioned.
~ The banquet room reminded me of a H.S. cafeteria. Kinda fun.
~ The food was actually kind of good. We were expecting the worst, lol!
~ Lots of quiet reflective places to sit and write.
~ The staff is friendly and accommodating.
What wasn’t so great:
~ Cell block «C». The dorms. Sort of prison-​like, blue plastic shower curtains for doors.
~ The showers. Water pressure was almost non-​existent.
~ The beds. I had to shift to find the spots between the bed-​springs.
~ All the lights off at a set time. Bring a flashlight.
~ No electric outlets in the rooms to plug your cell phone chargers in.
Advice for anyone attending a retreat weekend here:
1. Bring your own towels. They provide one small one.
2. Bring a pair of flip flops for the showers. The floors aren’t as clean as you would hope. Remember, they do the best they can but the facility is old.
3. Bring snacks, but bring your own that you do not intend to share in case you get munchies in the evening.
4. Bring earplugs. Its snore-​a-​palooza in the dorms.
5. Bring your cell phone charger and sit in an area of the presentation room that has outlets on the FLOOR. They exist. I found them. It’s the only time you’ll be able to charge your phone.
6. MP3 /​iPod. Reference snore-​a-​palooza.
7. Bring an old school flashlight. We brought LED ones. I turned mine on and woke up half the dorm. Those things are BRIGHT! You’ll need it if you wanna read /​look at magazines in your ‘cell’ during lights-​off time.
8. Bring some Tums /​Immodium in case their cafeteria food does you in.
I didn’t really have time to be snapping pix, they keep you pretty busy, but enjoy the large cactus outside my dorm that I was fascinated by!

I’m not entirely sure why everyone is reviewing the Engaged Encounter program here, since De Paul is a retreat center/​facility that hosts a wide variety of church services, programs, and retreats. Engaged Encounter can choose to book any retreat center they want, so reviews of the Engaged Encounter program should be written and posted elsewhere, not here unless you are specifically addressing the facilities.
This is one of the better city retreat centers available because there’s minimal distraction from the neighborhood/​city. The buildings are spaced far enough from the surrounding area with its large yards and parking lots. However it doesn’t come close to the quality of mountain/​lakeside retreat centers in the San Bernadino area. The sleeping area is pretty crappy but you do get your own bed. Bathrooms are plentiful and clean. Onsite cafeteria serves average cafeteria food. The large swimming pool in the center of the facility is a bit inappropriate for a retreat center. There aren’t many spots on the facility grounds that provide a quiet spiritual atmosphere.
Use this facility if your retreat/​program is active, loud, and interactive. If you’re looking for a spiritual atmosphere with a retreat/​program requiring ambiance, silence, and personal space, stick to the retreat centers in mountain/​lakeside areas unless you are very advanced in your meditation and can tune out distractions during reflection/​prayer/​meditation.

My fiancée and I just got back from a Catholic Engaged Encounter. I’m going to throw a disclaimer in here and mention that I’m an atheist, so the parts about God and religion weren’t really valuable to me.
I read the reviews on Unilocal before we went and was expecting a generic encounter in a rundown facility. I was a little afraid that it would be judgmental (we live together) or antagonistic towards me since I don’t believe in God. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I can’t even imagine how bad of an attitude you would have to have towards this event to not take any value back from it. It seems that the other posters were ridiculously picky or walked in hating the whole idea.
I walked in expecting to have to answer a list of questions in front of a priest. Instead we did a series of exercises out of a workbook. The first 20 minutes were real couples and a priest discussing various issues. The priests discussions were a little odd sometimes since his experiences were about his life of priesthood, but they were mostly helpful. The couples discussed the issues with their own personal anecdotes about struggles they had in their lives. I was surprised by how open and honest they were about the troubles they had in their marriages. It was a great inspiration and really helped us to realize that a marriage doesn’t have to be perfect or drama free to be a success.
After the discussion on the topic, we were asked to spend 20 minutes separately to write down our thoughts based on a series of questions. Which questions you answered and spent time on were entirely up to you. It was a great environment to write down what you truly felt about the topics and analyze your relationship. The questions naturally led into areas where couples might need to have a better understanding of each other. There was less of an emphasis on specific issues and more of an emphasis on working through them and being on the same page.
After 20 minutes of writing, you spend 20 minutes discussing your answers with your fiancée. The only people there are the two of you and your answers. My fiancée and I had some great discussions about how we could improve our way of dealing with certain things, and brought up several things that we set aside to discuss later.
There were several mass type events in a chapel that was a bit hot, but they didn’t last too long. The night prayer event was particularly touching, there were a lot of tears in the room. Since I’m atheist it was a bit boring, but not intolerable.
My only criticisms of the retreat would be that the discussion about Natural Family Planning included statistics that were demonstrably false. Several «statistics» in other sections really didn’t differentiate between correlation and causation. I find it intellectually dishonest to pretend there is evidence that issues of faith have direct, measurable, causative impacts on marital life.
The facilities were adequate, nothing more, nothing less. I brought my own sleeping bag and pillow on the suggestion of previous reviewers. I probably slept a little more comfortably, but it wasn’t necessary. Snoring is really loud, but they hand out earplugs. Everything was plenty clean enough and adequate to have a good nights rest. Don’t expect a plug for your cell phone charger, I suggest you leave it at home anyways. They provide a towel, washcloth and liquid soap in the showers. I wouldn’t bring any of those things, maybe shampoo if you don’t want to use the liquid soap on your head. Bringing a really comfortable pen and individually packaged snacks are good pieces of advice. My hand didn’t cramp up writing, but I could see how that is possible.
The food was actually pretty good. Not a huge selection, but you had choices. The quality of the food was good, but it really isn’t huge on healthy choices. It’s way to easy to eat to much, be sure to take small portions.
I’m at a loss as to what to say about the reviewers that didn’t like the weekend. I’m an atheist and I found the discussions we had to be incredibly valuable. All I’m left with is that the people that took nothing out of this experience must have put nothing in for effort. If you just sat there and tuned everything out, I suppose it would be boring. If you didn’t give a shit about making your marriage a success, it would be just another check mark along the way to getting married. I’m not afraid to say that the people that couldn’t find value in this weekend have no business getting married. If I had a friend or fiancée that couldn’t find value here, I’d write them off as a lost cause. Go in with an open mind and a good attitude and you’ll be amazed by how much you can grow as a couple, even if you already have it together.

I don’t know why the catholic fait insist on pushing people away from getting married by having theses type of events in order to get married. It’s a waste of time and money. Don’t do if u don’t have to. However if u must please bring energy drinks, stuff to keep u awake and going. Be ready to write, be uncomfortable and listen to some boring ass presentations. We had to do this because our church required it otherwise I wouldn’t even consider it!

Survival Tips for Getting Through an Engaged Catholic Encounter (CEE) Weekend Here
Tip 1 — Don’t go. I know this recommendation is contrary to the heading of this review. But this is the wisest advice you can take for getting through this weekend. Do whatever you can to get out of going. Seriously, unless you have never told your fiancé any of your feelings ever and have never discussed any issues ever, this weekend is pointless. Any important elements could have been covered in a single day — WITHOUT SPENDING THE NIGHT!
If you can’t convince your priest to let you do a single-​day session or multiple-​day-​long sessions and you end up having to go to CEE, move on to tip 2.
Tip 2 — Bring a warm, comfy sleeping bag and a pillow. Yes, you’ll have your very own bed to enjoy from midnight to 6:45 a.m. (wakeup time!), but the sheets are heavily starched and thin (i.e. sandpaper), the blanket doesn’t seem to ever get washed, and the pillow is miserable (the scratchy pillow case gave me a rash on my cheeks). Beyond the cacophony of snores, one of the MANY factors contributing to people not being able to sleep was the cold. I had brought a Snuggie, which I used as a blanket, but I would have been much happier snug as a bug in my own clean sleeping bag.
Tip 3 — Go to your cubicle room and get ready for bed when everyone else does. They turn out the lights in the dorms with no warning either 30 or 45 minutes after you get up there. On the first night, I went up after the lights were out, and it was very hard to quietly get all my stuff out in the dark. I couldn’t even find the flashlight I had brought it was so dark, and every shuffle of my bag echoed throught the room, and I knew I was keeping people up. Since you have to get up at 6:45, you may as well get ready for bed in the light and lay in bed and rest, if not sleep.
Tip 4 — Don’t expect to sleep. Be prepared to be a zombie on Sunday. But to aid in getting any sleep, bring some sort of sleeping aid (e.g. Tylenol PM). You will need earplugs to block out all the snoring, but they provide these everywhere, and the ones they provide are pretty good.
Tip 5 — Bring your own, ergonomic, padded pen. They provide pens, but they’re awful and uncomfortable. And you will be writing all weekend. Or doodling when the writing becomes unbearable.
Tip 6 — Bring single-​serving snacks. You’re supposed to bring snacks to share with everyone. Instead of bringing a big bag of chips, crackers, or cookies, bring those little single-​serving packet ones. They’re easier to grab and go for you and your new 100 closest friends.
Tip 7 — If you’re vegetarian or have any dietary restrictions, they won’t accomodate you. Breakfast is eggs, potatoes, sausage, toast, and fruit. Lunch was refried beans, Mexican rice, beef tacos, and iceberg lettuce salad with ample ranch dressing. Dinner was rosemary chicken, rice, veggies, and that lovely salad. Lunch on Sunday was premade meat sandwiches and potato salad. You can bring your own food and put it in a separate fridge that the others can’t access. And they have a microwave you can use, as well.

The De Paul Center is a Catholic retreat center for groups or individuals. My fiancée and I attended a Catholic Engaged Encounter here this past weekend from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. The facility is big like a small campus with 2 dormitories, cafeteria, meeting rooms, swimming pool, parking, gym, a nice chapel, and lots of green areas. Even though its in the middle of Montebello city surrounded by houses and just off the main street, you feel as far away from the city as if you were in the mountains. It truly allows for the retreat to be effective — there are no distractions from the outside world.
The downside of this facility is its age, don’t expect to have the luxuries from home here: the dormitories are old fashioned and worn down (be wary of their blanket); hard to get steady hot water in the showers and not too clean; there ain’t much to do in the spare time here; and the cafeteria only serves up basic hot meals.