One day in 2022, Matt from Dayton, OH, cast a wide net on his online search.
Joining CatholicMatch at the encouragement of a friend, Matt, 24, had an open mind. As a Catholic who pushed off relationships until after college, Matt wondered if perhaps the right woman was waiting for him in another part of the world. “Where I come from has a pretty small Catholic community, and of the young adults involved it’s typically a lot of men. Meeting somebody was going to take some effort,” Matt shares.
About six months into his subscription, Matt broadened his search radius. One day he saw a profile that only had a name, a few pictures, and no bio—Natalia, from the South American country of Colombia. “I thought, ‘wow, she’s cute!’ So I sent her a message,” says Matt.
“Hey Natalia. What are you looking for here on CatholicMatch?” Matt asked Natalia. Then, he did not hear anything from her for six weeks.
Natalia, 22, was initially turned off by “all the English” on CatholicMatch.
A native of Colombia working as a fashion designer, Natalia, who goes by “Naty,” first heard of CatholicMatch while on a church retreat. “The couple speaking shared how they met on this app called CatholicMatch,” she recalls. Curious, Naty went home and looked it up. “There was a lot of English!” Not knowing much English herself, this initially turned her away. But after about two weeks and with the help of a translator app, Naty decided to give it another try.
While perusing profiles out of curiosity, Naty had one prevailing thought: “all the Catholic men near me are so ugly!” There were not many people around her in Colombia, and the majority of men that were showing up were in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Not wanting a long-distance relationship, Naty soon changed her mind about using the site.
A few months later, Naty went on a visit to the city of Chiquinquira, a holy place devoted to Mary as the patroness of Colombia. While kneeling in a beautiful church there, she prayed with all her heart for Mary to send her a man. On that very same day, January 3, 2022, Matt from Ohio sent her a message on CatholicMatch.
A timid start to their connection did not prevent what God had in store.
Since Naty was not active on the site, she did not reply to Matt’s message until February 24, 2022. One day she was in her house and feeling particularly sad. “I think it was the Holy Spirit that said to me, ‘open that app and scroll,’” shares Naty.
Their messaging started up slowly from there, with Naty using a translator app to respond to Matt in English. “I only took a couple years of Spanish in high school and spoke very little,” Matt admits, “so I really appreciated Naty responding to me in English.”
One day they decided to try their first video call. Since Naty was quite reliant on using a translator to converse in English, she obtained a second phone for the translator app and used her other phone for the video chat. But she was so shy that when the video screen turned on, she shut off her lights so Matt could not see her. Responding accordingly, Matt turned his lights off as well, and the two tried conversing in the dark. This only lasted a few minutes before all the power in Naty’s home went out, cutting off the call completely!
Slowly but surely, they developed quite the connection over time, often staying up until the early hours of the morning sending messages or talking over the phone.
A package, a prayer, and an in-person visit!
A few months later, Naty desired to send Matt a care package. Yet the cost to send mail from Colombia to the US was incredibly high. Thankfully, her uncle soon made a trip to Florida, so Naty sent her care package with him to mail to Matt.
Enclosed was a hand-made doll that Naty had made of Matt, which she sprayed with her perfume. “This way you can know what I smell like,” she said to him. She also included Colombian candies, a map, and other goodies from her country. This was especially meaningful to Matt, who at Naty’s request recorded a video of himself unboxing the package.
On July 5, Matt asked Naty, “would you like to be my girlfriend?” This was a big step for Naty, who viewed having a boyfriend as a serious commitment. She agreed, and soon after began the process of applying for a travel visa to come visit Matt. Knowing this could take up to two years, the couple decided to write a prayer together asking God to remove any obstacles in their relationship. “This is so special to us because this is our prayer, no one else has a prayer like this,” Naty says, sharing that they pray it together often.
In early 2023, their prayers were answered and Naty’s visa was approved! She took her first visit to the United States in April. Their long awaited rendezvous did not disappoint. On the way, Naty sent Matt a picture of what she was wearing, and Matt showed up purposely wearing the same color scheme as Naty so they could find each other more easily in the airport.
When she found him first in the airport, Naty hid behind a concrete column and recorded Matt’s reaction to seeing her for the first time. Naty says she was pleasantly surprised when she saw Matt in person, thinking “he is even better than in pictures!” They went out to lunch and shared what Naty says was their “first kiss.” Naty was eating a french fry, and while holding it between her teeth, she leaned over the table and offered Matt the other half. He took the offer and this was, in fact, Matt’s first kiss ever!
“I would do this a million times just to see you.”
At the end of that first visit to the US, in which Naty stayed for four weeks with Matt’s parents, Naty did not want to leave. She told him, “I would do this a million times just to see you.” Thankfully another visit soon came a few months later, and this time Naty stayed for six weeks, where she and Matt experienced their first Thanksgiving together and celebrated their birthdays. This time at the end, Matt said to her, “what if you just didn’t go back?” Naty knew that this would not be right, she wanted Matt to meet her parents and properly ask for her hand in marriage.
In April, 2024, Matt made the trek to Colombia to do just that. Staying for 17 days, Matt wasted no time asking for Naty’s hand in marriage. Her parents agreed, praying over them passages from Christ is Passing By, a book by St. Josemaría Escrivá, and parts of scripture. Soon after, the couple traveled to the coastal Colombian city of Cartagena, where Matt proposed. They danced to their favorite song, then Matt read Naty a hand-written letter:
“We were two people separated from each other by 3791km, but now we’re less than a meter apart. February 24, 2022 was just 762 days ago. July 5, 2022 was 631 days ago. Right now is day 0 of you being mine forever.” This ended in a proposal with “the most amazing ring”!
The couple has since been working through the logistics of a Catholic wedding, which will take place in Colombia in late 2025. It is really important for Naty’s family to be present for the wedding, and this is easier done in Colombia. Naty has now moved to the US and is working on her citizenship process.
Above all, they give credit to God for bringing them together. Naty even recalls a prophetic moment in 2020, two years before meeting Matt, where she wrote a Letter to God asking for a husband. In it, she listed the qualities she hoped for, and even drew a picture of what she thought he would look like. Incredibly, this picture looks exactly like Matt, and the qualities fit him too. “Ultimately we are on God’s time, “ Matt shares. “He allows things to happen when He wants them to happen.”
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