Donald, 50, and Claudia, 48, lived just 15 minutes apart in their California town. They had never met, shared no mutual friends, and went to different churches. Their adjoining communities were separated by a bridge. “We never really crossed that bridge,” Donald says.
Donald saw an ad for CatholicMatch in his church bulletin, and decided to join. Being Catholic was too much a part of his identity to consider anything else. Claudia noticed his profile right away. “Donald’s was the first profile I liked, the first day I joined CatholicMatch,” she remembers. She thought he was cute, so she sent him a smile emoji. That was all it took to cross the bridge.
Claudia says she wasn’t totally comfortable with the idea of online dating.
“It was intimidating and made me feel exposed,” she admits. Still, she was tired of dating men who didn’t share her beliefs and values. Donald seemed different. “I was encouraged by the fact that we were praying for each other when we first met,” he shares.
Eventually, they met in person at a local cafe. On another date soon after, they attended a Passion Play. They also started going to Mass and Adoration together, which brought them closer.
Both had been married civilly before.
They shared a common marriage history. “We had both been married previously—but civilly,” Claudia says. In order to marry in the Church, they had to prove that their previous weddings were not Catholic. For Donald, who was born in San Francisco, the process was relatively easy. “He just went over to his church of baptism and got a copy of his birth certificate, which had no notations,” Claudia says.
For Claudia, the process proved much more daunting. “For me it was harder because I was born in El Salvador,” she reveals. “I was not a Catholic until long after my original civil marriage.”
Claudia’s former husband had been born in a tiny town in Nicaragua, and she would have to travel there to retrieve his birth certificate. “It was difficult and no one could find it,” she says. “In the end, my ex paid a lawyer to go get the certificate in Nicaragua, and that was the last piece needed.”
During the couple's dating relationship, they both knew that marriage was on the horizon.
One morning, Donald and Claudia met for breakfast at the cafe from their first date. After their food arrived, Donald proposed. “I got a little teary eyed,” Claudia remembers.
They enjoyed a small wedding at Claudia’s church, Saint Dominic’s, with about 50 people in attendance. “It was a beautiful day and a D-I-Y kind of wedding where everyone chipped in,” Claudia recalls. The reception was held at a local restaurant where they often went for happy hour.
They started their honeymoon by going to Fatima. “It was incredibly special!” Claudia says.
Even though married life is not always easy, they are so grateful for each other.
As a married couple, they enjoy wine tasting, following local music groups (especially 80's rock), going to outdoor festivals, and attending church-related events. But their union is not without its struggles. “Between us we have 5 kids, ages 17 to 24, so that's challenging,” Donald admits. They currently live apart, but will be moving in together in June 2018.
To manage this particular challenge, they drew encouragement from a story about news anchor Katie Couric. “I read that after Katie's first husband died and she remarried, she and her new husband kept separate households for the sake of the kids,” Donald says. “We are doing that until the youngest graduates, then we are selling Claudia's house and consolidating households.”
Despite these initial challenges, both Donald and Claudia are glad they gave online dating a chance.
“Absolutely do it!” Claudia exclaims.
“We only lived 15 minutes away from each other,” Donald says, “but we can’t think of any way we would have met if it wasn’t for CatholicMatch.”
