Joseph of Melbourne, Australia, was initially hesitant to join CatholicMatch because he felt shy about online dating. Finally, Joseph decided to give it a try and created an account in January 2020. He began browsing and quickly felt drawn to Rosario's profile.
For her part, Rosario of Lima, Peru, had CatholicMatch recommended to her by a friend but also had reservations about online dating. She finally decided to make an account in December 2019 after receiving a promotional email from CatholicMatch about a two-month discounted rate. A month into her membership, she connected with Joseph, the first and last person she’d talk to on the site.
He received a Peruvian CD as a child.
When Joseph was about seven years old, his granny in England sent him a traditional music of Peru CD as a gift, the first CD he’d ever owned. He had also imagined visiting Peru from a young age, mainly because he liked the Tintin story “Prisoners of The Sun.” Little did he know that he would one day marry a Peruvian woman!
They connected, hit it off, and planned to meet that summer.
When filtering through profiles, Joseph decided to look at Latin American profiles since he had previously worked as a teacher in Honduras and was familiar with the people. When he found Rosario’s profile, he was impressed with the artistic talent she showcased on her page.“I also liked the name Rosario; it’s a beautiful name,” he recalled. So, he reached out, and they began exchanging messages.
Early in their chats, Rosario shared a Christ Pantocrator icon that she had painted, and Joseph shared that his mother also painted icons. “For me, that’s a big coincidence,” Rosario recalled. Iconography would be one of the first topics they discussed, and they quickly moved on to more serious discussions. They were both very open about their dreams of having families and how they’d raise them. “One of the ways I felt God told me Joseph could be my husband is because I told him I wanted to homeschool my future children, and he said, ‘Me too.’ From there, I thought it was possible God was calling us to have a family together because our dream of having a family was very similar.”
Through their discussions, the pair realized they held the same political and traditional moral views and were both strong traditional Catholics. “In these times, I thought it would be almost impossible to marry someone with different moral views and try to raise children with them,” Joseph recounted.
The pair quickly moved from messaging on CatholicMatch to texting and video chatting. After talking a lot over just a few days, Joseph was ready to marry her! “We shared so much about each other in just a few days. I thought I could marry her because we had so much in common, and basically, we thought the same about everything. I was at a stage of my life where I wanted to be married, not stuffing around anymore,” Joseph recounted. “A lot of people just date and date for years, and I just didn’t want to do that,” he added.
COVID kept their relationship remote for almost two years.
Just 2-3 weeks after their initial contact, Joseph booked a flight to Peru for that June to meet in person, officially get engaged, and marry. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, and Australia had some of the strictest restrictions across the globe, closing their borders completely. The couple prayed that the borders would open back up in time for Joseph’s trip, but this was not God’s will, and his flight was canceled without a refund.
While crushed, the couple continued chatting daily by phone and video chat at least once a week. They’d frequently pray the rosary, novenas, and other prayers together. They invoked relationship and travel patron saints like St. Michael the Archangel, St. Raphael, and St. Christopher. “While we were waiting for almost two years, we suffered a lot. We kept saying, ‘Oh, we’ll meet this month. Maybe we can get married this other month, and it never happened. I remember feeling helpless and having doubts that maybe this relationship wasn’t God’s will. But we always prayed.” Rosario recalled.
The couple’s prayers finally paid off in late 2021 when Australia began to permit limited international travel. Joseph was able to book a one-way flight to Lima for December. He planned to live and work there for at least a year and marry Rosario. He arranged for an apartment close to where Rosario lived. But before they could marry, they’d need to meet in person and get engaged.
They finally met in Peru and got engaged!
After three exhausting days of flying a longer route to Peru with layovers in Qatar and Brazil to avoid certain COVID restrictions, Joseph arrived in Lima with Rosario waiting for him. Since Joseph doesn’t sleep well on planes, he was basically awake for three straight days, so he felt like he was in a dream state and looked like a zombie. But the pair was just thrilled that the moment they’d waited nearly two years for had finally arrived, and they were together at last. After leaving the airport, they went to Rosario’s neighborhood and enjoyed ceviche and other traditional Peruvian dishes.
On Joseph’s second day in Lima, December 4th, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer to propose. While Rosario was getting ready for work at his apartment, she turned to him, and he was holding the ring. He then asked her to marry him. “Yes, of course,” she replied. “The weird thing was the ring was perfect for my finger, even though we never met, and I didn’t tell him my ring size,” Rosario recalled. Perhaps this was an act of divine providence.
A few days later, Rosario introduced Joseph to her parents. He told them his intention to marry her, and following the Peruvian custom of Pedida de mano, gave a speech asking for their blessing; then, her parents each gave speeches before giving him permission to take their daughter into marriage. Joseph was able to find work as an online English teacher very quickly, and the couple began planning their wedding.
They were married just a few months later with a beautiful Mass.
After waiting so long to get engaged, the couple wanted to get married as soon as possible and scheduled the wedding just a few months later in May. Unfortunately, most of Joseph’s family couldn’t travel to Peru for the wedding. But fortunately, one of his brothers, Paul, would be able to make it and be the best man.
The wedding day finally arrived on May 13, 2022, the feast of our Lady of Fatima. The Mass took place at Divino Niño La Molina Parish in Lima, with Fr. Raul Pereyra serving as the celebrant. While the couple would have loved a traditional nuptial Mass in the extraordinary form, they had a reverent ordinary form Mass with parts of the Mass said in Latin, Gregorian chant, and the bridesmaids using veils.
During the Mass, Joseph and Rosario received a special blessing with a marriage crucifix. This primarily Eastern European tradition is meant to entwine Christ into the marriage. It involves the couple exchanging their vows with their right hands placed on the crucifix, then kissing it. They then place a crucifix in their home to remind them to keep Christ in their marriage and to always look to the Cross in times of difficulty and suffering. At the end of the Mass, the couple consecrated their marriage to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A beautiful reception followed the Mass where Joseph recalls his brother Paul “Carved up the dance floor with his Peruvian counterparts.”
They’re living out their vocation in a remote area of Australia.
Shortly after the wedding, the couple moved from Lima to Arequipa, Peru, and lived there for six months before moving to Australia so Joseph could take a higher-paying teaching job. When they moved, Rosario was four or five months pregnant, which made air travel more difficult, but they managed it. The couple settled in Santa Teresa, Australia, a remote desert town in December 2022. With Joseph making more, Rosario could follow her dream of becoming a homemaker.
On May 9, 2023, the couple had their first child, a girl, just a few days before their first wedding anniversary and, funny enough, on Rosario’s birthday! They named her Maria Fatima because she was born close to the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and Joseph had always liked the idea of having a daughter named Maria. As with their marriage, they consecrated their daughter to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Living in the desert has had many challenges, including the scorching Summers and freezing Winters. The pair is also very far away from their families, especially Rosario. Despite these difficulties, Joseph and Rosario have enjoyed married life and living as a family with their daughter. They’ve also seen living in such a remote area as beneficial for their vocation. “We’re able to grow together in the married life and as a family independently,” Joseph said. “Being here is similar to the experience of missionary nuns I met in Peru who travel to remote parts of the world. Whether you’re a nun or a wife, you have to do everything to live your vocation,” Rosario added.
Their advice for CatholicMatch Users:
Joseph’s advice for CatholicMatch users is not to be put off by online dating and have that stigma because “Everything we do these days is online, so why not dating?” he said. He adds that the app is a great tool to meet a good, faithful person to marry. “You’re not going to meet a faithful Catholic at a bar,” he said.
He also emphasizes the importance of prayer during courtship. “Pray together as much as possible. It’s really important. We prayed the rosary at least once a week during that long distance period,” Joseph said. Finally, he reminds users that a good marriage comes down to sacrifice, and that’s particularly true of international relationships. “Someone has to make a huge sacrifice by leaving their family behind,” he said.
Rosario had similar advice for CatholicMatch users about the importance of a good prayer life during courtship. She reminds users that Sister Lucia, one of the Fatima seers, said the battle in these times is for the family. “That battle doesn’t start with the family, it starts with the courtship. It’s important to pray the rosary during courtship to ask for Our Lady’s intercession,” she said. “We just can’t do anything without the rosary,” she added. “Yeah, get on the team!” Joseph concludes.
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