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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Couples
renew their vows during the annual celebration. (Photos by Caroline B.
Mooney) |
 Bishop
Timothy Doherty poses for a photo with Andrew and Kati Greeson, married
1½ years, and Harry and Rosalie Metzger, married 65 years. Andrew holds
9-month-old daughter Sophia. |
 Claire
and Tom Aulbach, married 40 years |
 Rita
and Frank Flannelly, married 55 years |
By Caroline B.
Mooney
The
Catholic Moment
LAFAYETTE — College sweethearts Andrew and Kati Greeson have only celebrated one wedding anniversary together, but they hope to have many more. And they hope to renew their vows annually as they did at an anniversary Mass with Bishop Timothy L. Doherty on Oct. 23 at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
“We have been married 1½ years and it’s been wonderful; it’s everything I thought it would be and more,” said Kati, a member of St. Ann Church, Lafayette. “I am married to my best friend.”
The couple brought their 9-month-old daughter, Sophia, to the Mass.
“She came early in our marriage, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Kati said. “She has definitely strengthened our marriage, and strengthened our strengths and our weaknesses very quickly.”
“We say she’s Italian because we had our honeymoon in Rome,” Andrew said. “We were at the Vatican and we happened to come across the pope’s confessor. We asked to have our rosaries blessed, but when he found out we were on our honeymoon, he gave us a marriage blessing and he blessed us with many children. That was it — he gave us the green light.
“We thought this Mass would be nice to start coming to every year,” he said. “We want to be a 65-year anniversary couple. Seeing all the couples who have been married so long is a nice reminder of what we want to be.”
The Greesons joined 75 couples from across the Lafayette diocese at the Mass.
Harry and Rosalie Metzger, parishioners of St. Lawrence Church, Muncie, marked 65 years of marriage.
The Metzgers met in high school and stayed in contact while Harry served in the Navy.
“We were writing back and forth,” he said. “When I came into port, I always had the biggest packet of mail of anybody. This gal was writing me every day.
“We have been very fortunate and the good Lord has blessed us,” Harry said. “We have had ups and downs like everybody. Our kids are all great kids.”
The Metzgers have three daughters and two sons, nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. One son, Father Tom Metzger, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church, Noblesville, concelebrated the Mass.
“The most important thing in our marriage has been our faith,” Rosalie said. “Faith has helped us realize what’s important in life and that is the most important thing. And we both have done everything 50/50.”
“Marriage is a sacramental relationship, about love and companionship,” Bishop Doherty said in his homily. “You hope to be a help to your partner and if God gives you the grace to have children, your obligation is to raise them and help them get to heaven.
“Marriage is also about the daily choice,” he said. “You live a choice and renew it in little or big ways every day. I am hoping you are able to signify your choice to be together every day. … Do we choose each day to be holy in the sacrifices we make? People think about sacrifice as giving something up, but sacrifice is making something holy. On a good day you can look at your spouse and think they are holy, and not just for staying with you.
“… Marriage is a story that changes, a story of our life and a story of our parents,” he said. “As we change and get older, we get different perspectives on things. The things that change in each story are jobs, health, parents, children and aging, both in a sense of surrendering things by stages and embracing new moments and opportunities.
“Circumstances change,” Bishop Doherty said. “People get disappointed in their marriage and relationship and they lack the virtue that we call constancy. That simply means we weather storms. We go through celebrations knowing an awful lot of grace happens by keeping a constant presence of relationship to the person we promised our life to. I hope that helps us understand that nobody is married for 25 or 50 years on the same terms, the same wants and desires that were there a month before their wedding. What it does demonstrate is that with the powerful grace of God, we can choose to be constant to each other.
“We marry not only for ourselves, but for the sake of our families and our children,” he said. “The Church is very constant on that; the purpose of marriage isn’t just for the happiness of individuals or couples, but for society. It depends upon people who are constant with each other.
“Each of us comes here today with different stories,” Bishop Doherty said. “In each of those stories, God has been able to work in different ways. Your uniqueness serves a purpose for people entering marriage. Words and scenes may be quite different providing that the light used to write by is God’s light and grace of the Church. I applaud your uniqueness.”
Tom and Claire Aulbach, members of St. John the Evangelist Church, Hartford City, have been married for 40 years.
“We wouldn’t have gotten this far without faith,” Tom said. “Marriage is a sacrament that God gave us and it’s important.”
“Every day you have to renew your vows,” Claire said. “We have always attended Mass together. We were both cradle Catholics and we have had a lot of faith. It is prayer and faith that have helped us through the ups and down with jobs and so many things like that. We wanted to come to this Mass because our 40th is a landmark anniversary.”
Frank and Rita Flannelly, members of Blessed Sacrament Church, West Lafayette, have been married for 55 years.
“We met at a lake in Pennsylvania when he was just coming back from Korea,” Rita said. “After he was discharged, we started dating.”
“Our faith has always kept us strong,” Frank said. “You are not always right and you are not always wrong.
“What has kept us together is patience,” he said. “My advice for young couples is to have patience and an understanding of each other’s needs.”