Single father Dave wanted to find a faithful, practicing Catholic. “I was baptized and confirmed Catholic as a child, but walked away for most of my adult life,” he explains.
Having returned with zeal to his religion, he knew he needed to center his dating life around God, too. He had little luck finding like-minded singles in his mountain hometown of Oregon in the U.S., though.
So the high school Spanish teacher joined CatholicMatch in January of 2021.
After a few days of puttering through the local profiles (there were very few!) he decided to completely remove the distance parameters he’d set. Since he himself was 40, he also figured it was safe to increase the age parameters from 42 to 43, to see who might happen to pop up. If he hadn’t done both of these things, he’d never have seen Angela, whose profile appeared after some time scrolling.
At the time, she was 43 and also lived in the capital city of Lima in Peru. Not only that, it was her very last day on CatholicMatch, because she had decided to take a break from dating as soon as her subscription ran out. Dave singled her out and sent her a message, then logged off to watch TV instead. To his surprise, Angela responded just a few minutes later!
“I ignored the urge to wait until the next day (not wanting to look overly enthusiastic!), based on the fact that she responded to me without hesitation or pretense,” Dave remembers. Since Angela’s subscription was about to expire, they swapped phone numbers by that evening to keep in touch via text.
Texting turned into several days of audio calls and Dave became totally enamored with the sound of Angela’s voice.
They began doing video calls, which turned into long and engrossing conversations. After a few weeks of this, they had the big discussion of “should we start dating officially?” The answer for both of them was yes, although they knew the long, long-distance would definitely not make it easy. They decided to rely on daily video chats and lots of phone calls as they started the process of arranging a visit for six months in the future.
One thing Dave noted about Angela was how understanding and gracious she was about Dave’s daughter (who was seven at the time). Dave had been married twice previously in his life, but these marriages were not authentic in the eyes of the Catholic Church. He had been grateful to receive annulments for both, which he knew would be needed for him to reenter the Catholic dating world and pursue a religious marriage. (Angela had never been married before.) Dave makes it a priority to be involved in his daughter’s life, and he was excited to see Angela being very understanding of this.
Fast forward to July of 2021, when Dave was able to fly to Peru to meet Angela in person.
They’d been dating long-distance for six months at that point, so they were both eager to finally meet the person on the other side of the screen! Dave was able to spend a week and a half in Angela’s hometown.
“It was true bliss to be able to take walks, enjoy meals, and pass the time side by side!” Dave says. Meeting in person was the confirmation he was waiting for. Halfway through his visit, he proposed to Angela in her home. He didn’t want any flying banners or public parties–he wanted just the two of them to share this sincere, heartfelt decision together.
On December 28th, 2021, the two celebrated their Sacrament of Matrimony in one of the most beautiful Catholic churches in Lima, Peru. Both of their families and many of their friends were able to attend, which is rather a miracle unto itself due to the distance!
“We're currently in immigration limbo and hoping to find ways to see each other while we wait for the immigration process to play out,” the couple reports.
They are maintaining a very active prayer life, petitioning God for help so they can live together soon–and of course, relying on their tried-and-true Facetime calls. In newlywed life, they have found their cultural differences fascinating and sometimes challenging. “(We have) very different cultural views on a variety of questions, all the way from roles in the household and parenting, to less significant topics such as cooking and which food items require refrigeration!” Dave laughs.
They are both working to approach these situations with flexibility, humor, and an openness to understanding where each other are coming from. Dave particularly is eager for Angela to build a good relationship with his daughter over the years, and for his daughter to have an excellent role model of a Christian woman in his new wife.
They both state how grateful they are for CatholicMatch bringing them together.
“We both liked how CatholicMatch allows you to view each prospective date in terms of their foundational beliefs as well as their attitudes on issues ranging from politics to premarital sex,” they say. “CatholicMatch was invaluable. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for providing this opportunity for us to meet each other and start our life together!”
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