Joacim, from Sweden, was pretty sure that he would never meet a Catholic girl in his home country. Sweden is predominately Lutheran—only 2% of people are Catholic. “Some of my friends around the world had met their ‘match’ with the help of CatholicMatch, so I decided to give it a try,” shares the 29-year-old. “[However], online dating was something I was very reluctant to do. The perception of desperation came to mind, but I wanted to try it so I could at least say I did.”
In January 2016, Joacim made a limited profile because he wasn’t sure what to write about himself.
No seven-year dating relationships
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Nicole from Chile joined
Nicole was looking at profiles when Joacim’s cute picture caught her eye. Discovering that he was, like her, devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass appealed to her. The problem with Joacim’s profile was that it was too blank, so Nicole reached out to him asking if he would include more details in his profile.
Paying a year's membership for just one message!
Joacim bought a membership just so he could see Nicole’s message. “He had had been on CatholicMatch for a while, but never paid a subscription until he got a message from me,” explains Nicole, who is also 29-years-old. “As usual, he couldn’t see what my message said until he paid. The funny thing is that he paid a whole year to see my message! Maybe he also thought that he would need more time to convince me.”
Joacim filled the blank portions of his profile just for Nicole. “This made me feel special,” she shares.
Falling in love across the miles...
On Nicole’s profile was an attractive picture of her in Spain that caught Joacim’s attention. “I have never really been
a person who believed in love at first sight but, when I saw that picture, I started to have feelings right away for her.” This feeling was reinforced by Nicole’s devotion to the Church and for Christ. “The most important thing for me was that Nicole was Catholic. As a convert, it would be impossible for me to get married to a Protestant.”
Nicole adds, “He said he fell in love with me when he saw the Spanish picture, but thought that ‘CL,' in Santiago, CL, stood for California U.S. instead of Chile, South America. When he asked me and realized the mistake, it was too late because he was already in love with me!” she laughs.
From the beginning, Joacim and Nicole had engaging conversations, and they enjoyed each other’s company immensely. “We had so many important things in common; we shared the same type of humor and the same objectives in life. We spent three hours speaking every day. We were so happy with each other, and we usually ended up completing each other’s sentences,” she recalls.
Meeting in person—he passed all the tests
By October 2016, everything was going so well they decided to meet. Nicole felt it was important that Joacim came to her country first. “So he decided to come all the way over from Sweden to Chile—from the North Pole to the South Pole—even though everyone thought we were crazy,” she laughs. “But that was the first step for starting this relationship.”
Nicole’s father went with her to pick up Joacim from the airport, because she had some initial fears about meeting him in person, but those quickly dissipated after the first day. During Joacim’s visit, they discussed all of the issues that might cause Nicole to change her mind: education, family, Catholicism, engagement. “He passed all
examinations with good grades.”
Overcoming distance, culture, & permit hurdles
Wanting to know each other even better, they spent two months together during December 2016 and January 2017. During this time, Nicole started to realize that loving Joacim meant that she would have to leave her country, family, friends, and religious environment. She worked through this by knowing that Joacim was the man that she had asked Saint Joseph, Saint Anthony, and Our Lady of Lourdes to send her.
Culturally speaking, Nicole and Joacim are quite different, and English is the couple’s second language. “I have lived in Europe most of my life and in these Scandinavian countries with Teutonic mentality. Always be on time, and there must be order to things. It was not easy to encounter the [laid back] mentality south of the border,” he explains.
Another difficulty for the couple was the expected two years wait time for Nicole to get a permit to live in Sweden. “I thought we were never going to be together,” she says. “Joacim tried to calm me down, but it was almost impossible. Surprisingly, after only five months, I got the residence permit. It had to be Divine intervention.”
An engagement blessed from the start
On December 17th, 2016, Joacim made arrangements with his parish priest to say a private Mass for them. Afterward, in front of the tabernacle, Joacim asked Nicole to be his wife. Joacim's priest was present, so he gave them his blessing and joined the couple for cocktails to celebrate the joyful occasion.
“On September 30th, 2017, we will be getting married in Santiago de Chile, and we will carry our crosses together happily ever after,” Joacim shares.
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