By Jessica Easthope
Love is in the airwaves. On CatholicMatch.com, singles who are interested in faith-focused dating can become couples in just a click. That’s how it happened for Tim and Maddie Van Havermaet.
“Clare, she’s been my best friend since college, she signed me up for six months on CatholicMatch,” said Maddie. “She created the whole profile and Timothy was the first person she found.”
Tim and Maddie are coming up on three months as a married couple. Their journey, which started at a Minnesota pizzeria in 2018, seemed like it was hitting a roadblock when the pandemic forced them to cancel their wedding reception, which was supposed to happen on May 30.
“When we are able to have large gatherings again we’ll have a post-wedding reception,” the couple explained.
They let God and their love lead the way. With Pre-Cana complete, Tim and Maddie managed to pull off a 10-person ceremony in church on April 4, during the apex of a global health crisis. It wasn’t easy.
“All of the Minnesota license bureaus in the Twin Cities shut down and we couldn’t get a marriage license, so on a Thursday afternoon, 24 hours before the stay at home order went in place, we drove up to the Stearns County office and got a marriage license at a drive through,” said the Van Havermaets.
Maddie and Tim are one of CatholicMatch.com’s many success stories, but getting married during a pandemic isn’t as challenging as dating during one. But the dating service is giving people hope: that simple download can lead to your soulmate.
“We’re definitely the place for Catholics to meet each other for online dating and we’re really focused on faith-focused dating for Catholic singles,” said Kateri Bean, the content manager for the site.
Kateri got the job at the start of the pandemic, and made it her mission to give singles a safe and fun outlet to start a relationship online.
“We’ve been encouraging people to have fun and get creative with it. Some of the ideas include online extensions like Scener, or inviting other couples to join your video chat so it’s a double date,” she said.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, activity on CatholicMatch is up by nearly 20 percent. Couples can just “click,” and God will take care of the rest.