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November 19, 2020By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Blessings from the pope and the bishop were a blessing to couples who celebrated their wedding anniversaries in their parishes this fall.
They, in turn, bless others with their witness.
Allison LeDoux, director of the Office of Marriage and Family, suggested that couples celebrate in their parishes, since the annual diocesan wedding anniversary Mass at St. Paul Cathedral was cancelled because of the coronavirus. Congratulatory certificates from Bishop McManus that couples usually pick up after that Mass would be mailed, she said.
Father Enoch K. Kyeremateng was among those requesting certificates. As chaplain of the diocesan African Ministry, he wanted them for couples he serves.
Papal blessings were surprises for some other couples.
Timothy P. Ryan, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Millville Council 11020, arranged for papal blessings for three couples at St. Augustine Parish in Millville, and helped initiate a blessing for a couple from St. Mary Parish in Uxbridge.
“I’ve been a life-long member of St. Augustine’s,” Mr. Ryan said. “We’re not a big parish and to get three couples celebrating their 60th anniversary in the same year!”
He said he contacted Joan DeMasi, administrative assistant for Father Richard F. Reidy, diocesan vicar general, and she got the blessings from the Vatican. Mr. Ryan then notified the couples that they were to receive something at the Sept. 20 Mass, but didn’t say what.
Lisa Barry said Mr. Ryan, who she’s known for years, suggested she do the same for her father-in-law and mother-in-law, Paul and Lucille Barry, St. Mary’s parishioners celebrating their 55th anniversary. (They were married Aug. 7, 1965.) After Mass at St. Mary’s on Sept. 27 their pastor, Father Nicholas Desimone, presented the blessing to them at a special ceremony.
“It was a big surprise,” said Lucille Barry. “We were home about five minutes and my son hung it up on the wall. … It’s very special.”
Asked if they had any advice for younger couples, Paul Barry said, “Your faith has an awful lot to do with it. Loving each other in good times and bad times … in sickness and health. …
“My friends and I used to go up to see her and her friends on bicycles … and sit on the front steps and laugh and talk.”
“I married the love of my life,” his wife added. “Besides love, it’s respect. … I still like him. … Our faith means so much to both of us. Fortunately, we passed it on to the boys.” (They have two sons and two grandsons.)
STARTED WITH A DANCE
Marcel Laplume, of St. Augustine’s, said he asked their priest, Father Victor Sierra, about blessing their marriage. (Mr. Laplume and his wife, Jeannette, married on Sept. 24, 1960.) They didn’t expect a papal blessing, Mrs. Laplume said.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “We’ve got it on our wall.”
They met at dances, where he was a DJ, they said. She hoped this good-looking, respectful guy would ask her to dance. After he did, “I was there every week,” she said. “I figured, ‘Keep going. Something will come of it.’”
Mr. Laplume said that the night he met her he told a friend, “This is the girl I’m going to marry.” Now they have five children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Asked their advice for couples today, Mrs. Laplume said, “When you start off it’s all love, love, love,” but there will be struggles. “You don’t give up. … You’ve got to trust in God.”
“He’s always there for us,” added her husband. He said one reason he’s been involved with the Church is to give back to God.
GOOD EXAMPLE
Laure-Abel Kloczkowski married her husband, Michael, on July 30, 1960. Mr. Ryan recently said he had a blessing for them.
“I thought it was a parish thing,” from the Knights of Columbus, “not a papal blessing,” she said in awe. She said it looks so nice. Like the Laplumes, they received the framed document at the Sept. 20 Mass, where they all renewed their vows. Father Sierra said the third couple celebrating their 60th anniversary, Robert and Ellen Bowen, were not there then, so he gave them the papal blessing later.
“This is a good example for all of us, especially for young people, to see that there is a possibility to commit to someone for life,” he said.
Paul Kumah, choir director of the Ghanaian community at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Worcester, said he and his wife, Agnes, a chorister there, knew each other for 10 years before they were married on Nov. 14, 1982 in Kumasi, Ghana.
Asked about anniversary plans, he said they pray to the Lord for giving them 38 years of marriage and pray for more years “so that we can worship God with a good heart.” Because of the coronavirus “we don’t go anywhere,” he said. (He’s 80 and she’s 69.)
The congratulatory certificate from Bishop McManus that came in the mail was a surprise,” Mr. Kumah said. “I felt so great … that the bishop would think … of us. … Send my appreciation to the bishop.”
Asked his advice for other couples he said, “You keep on praying.”
He and his wife “do everything as a couple,” he said. “We help each other. … It’s great to be a couple. … Whatever comes … your way, whether good or bad, you take it. That’s why you say, ‘For better, for worse.”
PUT GOD FIRST
To get the best in marriage, put God first, advises Raymond Ansong, vice president of the Ghanaian community at St. Joan of Arc.
“Putting God first made it easy to merge the two cultures,” he said, noting that people in America and Ghana look at marriage differently. The common ground is doing God’s will.
Twenty years ago he and his wife, Agnes, had a traditional marriage in Ghana, involving rituals with extended family, he said. His wife was Pentecostal, but “gradually … came to love our teaching” and became Catholic. She’s now organizing secretary for the Catholic Women’s Association of their parish’s Ghanaian community.
On Oct. 17, 2010, they had a sacramental marriage at St. Joan of Arc. On Oct. 25 this year, they renewed their vows there and got the certificate from Bishop McManus. Father Kyeremateng said they were very excited.
