A Vocation of love
Lorraine and John Lamonica are one of 80 couples who recently celebrated milestone anniversaries with Bishop Michael Martin. CHARLOTTE — St. Patrick Cathedral was full of love stories as more than 80 couples gathered for a special Wedding Anniversary Mass Oct. 11.
Bishop Michael T. Martin presided over the Mass and commended the couples on their love deeply rooted in Christ.
Ironically, that same weekend, a Vatican summit was addressing the global deterioration of matrimony and families due to the rise in cohabitation. Statistics from a 2026 Institute for Family
Studies study seemingly agreed, reporting that the number of Catholic weddings has plunged by 74% since 1970. That same study did find that faith influences marital satisfaction, with 79% of
Massgoing Catholics saying they were happily married, compared to 66% of non-religious couples.
At St. Patrick Cathedral, however, married couples sat hand-in-hand, still thriving at milestone anniversaries of 25 and 50 years.
Bishop Martin recognized some reasons why love appears skewed through a worldly lens. Those answers can be found in the day’s liturgical readings, he said in his homily.
“‘Charm’ and ‘beauty’ … are fleeting,” the bishop said, referencing the first reading from Proverbs 31.
“The world misses the depth of relationships when it gets simply caught up in charm and beauty, when they don’t carry through to the uncharming and unbeautiful times,” he said.
The married couples present in the pews learned early on to make their unions less about charm and beauty and more about God and the virtues mentioned in Colossians 3:12-17: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness.
“If you don’t have compassion for your spouse, check your pulse, your relationship is dead,” Bishop Martin said.
“It begins with compassion. My heart gives and bleeds for you, that is the hallmark and the foundation,” he said.
At that, he asked the couples to turn to one another and say that they could love them even more.
“Wherever you are in your current journey, if you think this is as good as it gets, you don’t know God,” he told them. “You can be more in love with your spouse.”
His suggestions for a continued marriage full of God’s love were to pray together and share Jesus’ love with others – not by professing love for one another in the fruit section of the grocery store, he joked, but by being an example for other couples.
“We have to be on fire by sharing the love of Jesus with the world,” he said.
Attendees Lorraine and John Lamonica, married for 50 years and members of St. Aloysius Parish in Hickory, have been each other’s prayer warriors for years.
They go to Mass every Sunday and sometimes more often, as she is an altar server. And they never miss weekly Eucharistic Adoration.
Lorraine Lamonica credits the example of discipleship they received from their parents and the faith they have in God.
“His parents were really religious. My parents were really religious,” she said. “My parents were married for over 50 years. Seeing their life rubs off on you seeing how happy they were.”
Now, they are honored their granddaughter will follow in their footsteps, choosing to marry on their June 5 anniversary date.
“Being married isn’t easy, but it all works, it all blends, but it is all under the umbrella of God,” Lorraine Lamonica said. “I really believe that because we had God first – it worked. Keep focused on you and each other, your children and God.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Advice from married couples for married couples
Keep God First
Kenneth and Erbie Rose
Kenneth and Erbie Rose’s love story started charmingly enough, but they say what has kept it strong is their Catholic faith and love of God.
First meeting at an Our Lady of Consolation Parish youth group function, the tall, smart-witted, cunning Kenneth Rose became a fixture in Erbie’s mind – so much so that when prom season rolled around later that year, she only had her sights on one guy: Kenneth.
“I did not hear from her anymore until the spring,” Kenneth says. “One night the Commodores were performing on our campus, and they had a sing-along. I was up there on stage playing the bongos. And one of her friends came up there on the stage and brought me a perfumed letter from
Erbie inviting me to her high school prom.”
It was a yes! Kenneth still remembers every minute of that prom night. Soon the young couple filled their nights with cruising down Beatties Ford
Road in Kenneth’s ’55 Chevy. The music was pumping, and when the traffic lights turned red, they’d turn on their dance moves in the middle of the street. They drank shakes at South 21 and rode the ferris wheel at Belmont amusement park. On weekends, they took trips to Myrtle Beach.
After they met each other’s families, Kenneth got down on one knee, and this time Erbie was the one to say yes. She joined OCIA classes, and soon they faced one another on the altar of Our Lady of Consolation – the church where they met – and professed their marriage vows.
Sixty years and four children later, they can finish each other’s sentences, still look into each other’s eyes as if they have a special secret, and laugh together at (some of) Kenneth’s jokes.
Compassion is what kept them bonded as they changed the diapers of their twin babies side-by-side in the middle of the night, taught youth ministry together, sang in the Gospel choir, and co-chaired many parish ministries while raising their growing family.
As a family, they would take the Eucharist to the sick – bringing their children along to play instruments to entertain the nursing home residents, and later, their granddaughter who would sing.
Now in their 80s, they remain committed to their faith and love for one another.
“God first, and then your spouse as your best friend to rely on and tell everything to, compromise with,” Erbie emphasizes. “He’s my best friend.”
Have compassion
Sarah and Joe Lamonica
Sarah and Joe Lamonica, who have been married 25 years, did not start dating with butterflies in their stomachs. Instead, their love grew out of a place of grief.
The two met as a young widow and widower, both in a state of bereavement dealing with the death of their spouses.
Sarah recalls, “It was nice to have someone to really talk to and who really understood me, and we both happened to be Catholic.”
Joe was a New Jersey police officer, and Sarah worked with him. The two were paired up by co-workers and hit it off. They were in their 50s and had some children still home and others out of the house. The family dynamic blended well, however, and the two families came together in their brokenness. They moved to Hickory when Joe retired, because they wanted to be close to his brother John. Now, the two couples attend St. Aloysius Church together.
Sarah says the key to being in a happy marriage is being there for one another and trusting each other.
Be kind to one another
Melvin and Elease Askew
When Elease visited her cousin in Ohio for a job opportunity, she was introduced to Melvin Askew. It was a funny coincidence – they went to the same high school in Alabama and were reunited in a city far from home.
Six months later, he proposed and they were married. Elease did not find a job on that visit to Ohio, but she did find the love of her life.
“When we first got married, I didn’t really know how to cook. So he would step in and make dinner for the family,” Elease recalls. “Every morning, he would get up early and make breakfast while I helped get the kids ready for school.”
Today, the Askews, who are members Our Lady of Consolation Parish in Charlotte, like to dance and still share recipes. The key to a great marriage, they say, is to keep God first and to keep laughing.
“We enjoy doing things together and keeping laughter in the family. Most of all, our faith has kept us grounded, and being close to our God helped us make choices to strengthen our family,” she says.
Have humility
Luis Navarrete and Coral Martinez
Luis Navarrete and Coral Martinez knew each other since they were 10 and were friends long before they were spouses. Luis traveled out of town a lot for work, but whenever he returned home, he always found Coral. Over the years, their friendship grew into more.
They were married in the Church, but at the time Luis wasn’t attending Mass regularly.
“At one point I was working and was out of town often. I missed my family. I created a bad habit of spending time with myself,” Luis recalls. “That’s when we decided to start going back to church, and it opened my eyes.”
Their faith has helped their marriage and has been a constant in the lives of their children. After 25 years, they are thriving at St. Joseph Parish in Kannapolis and are excited for the next 25 years in holiness.
“Keep God in your marriage,” Luis advises. “If you don’t have God in your marriage, the foundation is not strong and can fall, but He makes everything strong.”
Be patient and gentle
Lorraine and John Lamonica
Coming out of a difficult break-up, Lorraine was done with men, but when she crossed paths with John Lamonica, she started to change her mind.
They were both Italian Catholics from Brooklyn living in New Jersey. What were the chances? They got along well, and when she met his family, she immediately felt as if it was an extension of her own.
John knew from the second he met Lorraine she was “the one,” and he announced it to everyone. Soon enough, he proposed.
They were married in the Church and had one of those huge Italian weddings.
They moved to Hickory and as they got settled, his mother and brother followed, and so did Lorraine’s. John became a real estate agent, and through the years the growing Lamonica family started taking up entire pews at St. Aloysius Church in Hickory.
“We had some issues...but it didn’t separate us,” Lorraine recalls. “My dad was sick for like 10 years, and we took care of him, and we were always there for him. We never split because of it.
Trying to juggle a family and my father, then his mom got sick, and then my mom got sick.”
Lorraine says the key to staying in a relationship for 50 years is working as a team, keeping the faith and avoiding worldly advice.
She says, “It all works, it all blends, but it is all under the umbrella of God.”
More online
At www.charlottediocese.org/faith-life/marriage-family-and-life: Find marriage resources