He Was Ready to Give Up On Online Dating For Good
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Sergio had been looking for a Catholic partner for several years, using social media and other dating apps.
Spending some time there and having no luck, he came to the conclusion that this was a waste of his time! Then one night, he decided to get more specific with his search and typed “Single Catholics” into the Google search engine. What should pop up . . . but CatholicMatch? He made an account and joined as a member here immediately.
That's when Gloria came into the picture!
Meanwhile, around the same time, Colombian single mom, Gloria, joined CatholicMatch, Gloria had heard of CatholicMatch through an acquaintance, who told her she just had to sign up. At the time, she was 43 years old and had an eleven-year-old daughter Ana. This was in 2018.
A month later, Sergio found Gloria’s profile and sent her a message. They quickly moved to phones and texted each other for about a month. On July 7th of 2018, they went out for dinner on their first in-person date! They hit it off immediately and knew very soon they were right for each other.
Because Sergio lived in Houston, Texas, and Gloria lived in Colombia, they decided to shift their expectations of their relationship timeline.
A month into dating, Sergio proposed marriage . . . by law only.
They would be able to get a jump start on all the paperwork and Visa processes necessary by doing this, but not live as a married couple just yet. They would wait to start their Catholic life together until after their marriage in the church, once they had all of the paperwork complete and Gloria could join Sergio in Texas.
So, one month after the proposal, they got married according to United States law!
“The first time we got married by common law, I was really nervous because I thought it was really crazy what we were doing!” Sergio recalls. But forward they went! During this unique “legally married but not yet Catholic-married” period, they continued discerning as a couple together.
“We faced a lot of problems,” Sergio remembers. He had previously been married and Gloria’s single parenting brought with it some insecurities, too.
And don’t forget all the complicated paperwork processes for the Visa they had to manage!
They relied on their faith to get them through.
And, they also joined a group called Family Movement Catholic, which they found very helpful in their particular struggles.
“We don’t do what we want, but what Jesus wants!” Sergio says.
The happy couple finally celebrated their Catholic marriage ceremony on March 9th, 2023, and officially began their lives together as husband and wife then.
The two of them and their daughter continue to be very active in their local church, being Extraordinary Ministers and also traveling to new sanctuaries. One of their favorites so far has been the Holy Love Ministries visit in Cleveland.