“I had probably seen him in the grocery store many times,” said Marna, 58. Steve, 64, lived in the same town as her in Illinois. Actually, he lived 5 miles away—but it took CatholicMatch to bring them together. He had checked her profile out, and she noticed his page, as well. They both knew exactly what they were looking for, and it just happened to be each other.
They started emailing on May 26, 2014 and Steve quickly suggested they talk on the phone.
On June 14, they had their first date. They went to a local tapas restaurant and hit it off right away. “He looked just like his profile pictures,” said Marna. “I thought he looked handsome right off the bat.”
Steve thought Marna was attractive, as well. “She has a great voice, is kind and honest, and has great looks,” he said. He also noticed that she cared about nutrition and health, something that was very important to him. But the number one important thing to both of them was their strong Catholic faith and having God at the center of their marriage. The desire for a Catholic spouse was what drew them to CatholicMatch originally.
“CatholicMatch is great because it is all Catholics,” Marna said. “I like that the profile questions are very specific to the Catholic faith.”
Their connection through faith and living so close to each other moved the dating process along very quickly.
“Since we lived within five miles of each other, it was easy to get to know each other's families,” said Marna. “That gave us a feeling of security and allowed us to move faster in the relationship. I went to his house a lot sooner than I normally would have because of his location. Many of my relatives knew his family and vice versa.”
Steve didn’t waste any time making his feelings clear. On the second date, he asked Marna if her previous marriage was annulled, which it was.
“That’s good,” he said. “Because I’m looking for a wife.”
The feelings were mutual. The couple spent more and more time together, and things started to get serious fast.
“It’s not like when you are 22,” Marna said. “Now I am more mature and I know just how I feel.”
By Christmas of 2014, their relationship was nearing the next level; Marna knew Steve was going to propose.
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” she said. “I wanted him to pick the way he would ask me.”
Steve succeeded in surprising her at one of their favorite local restaurants for dinner one evening. They were enjoying a glass of wine together when he pulled out a blue velvet pouch with the ring and said, “I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"
“I was totally stunned,” Marna remembered. “Of course I said, 'yes!'"
The waitress spotted the proposal and brought over a chocolate cupcake with a sparkler, topping off the evening perfectly.
They planned an Irish-Catholic themed wedding for May 30, 2015, complete with four leaf clovers and a bagpiper performing a Celtic love song. They said during the ceremony that they both found their “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
But that wasn’t the most special thing about the wedding—Marna and Steve had a papal blessing for their marriage, something that made their union even more special and is close to both of their hearts.
Marna and Steve worked with their local parish priest, Fr. Corey, to receive the papal blessing. “The process for obtaining a papal blessing was surprisingly simple,” said Fr. Corey. “Pope Francis has consolidated the sources for the blessing into one office in the Vatican. By going to this website and printing out the request form, all one must do is fax the form to their office and the blessing comes in about one month.”
Fr. Corey’s advice for a couple interested in obtaining a papal blessing is to reach out to the priest who is preparing them for marriage. As there are no requirements to request a papal blessing other than the marriage being a valid Catholic union, it is a matter of taking the right steps. “It might help them if they gave the link to the priest because it is not common knowledge among the clergy as to how this process works,” Fr. Corey added.
During the ceremony, there is no specific way the blessing has to be presented. For Marna and Steve, the certificate with the Pope’s signature was framed and presented by an altar server, and Fr. Corey explained to the congregation that “Pope Francis had imparted his special blessing on this marriage.”
Both Marna and Steve are grateful for CatholicMatch. “Steve is the man of my dreams and the answer to my prayers,” Marna said.
Steve added, “Finding someone within five miles from my house had to be God's divine intervention, for sure!”
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