Couples credit faith for strong marriages

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Robert and Jennefer Noberini were rejoicing. They finally got to attend the annual diocesan wedding anniversary Mass, which Bishop McManus celebrated last Sunday at St. Paul Cathedral.“We’ve been waiting for it –so excited, so happy to be here,” said Mr. Noberini. (They mistakenly thought couples couldn’t attend until reaching their 25th anniversary –which they did in May.)
There is something to be said for celebrating with many couples, but it was also special to have an intimate Mass with the bishop, said Mr. Noberini. (Seven couples attended, down from the usual dozens.)
Bishop McManus said two couples who registered, were celebrating their 70th anniversary, four their 50th, one their 47th and one their 25th. So, he said, all but the silver anniversary couple would have heard the instruction once used at weddings, which he shared. God established the sacred union of marriage, which requires the complete giving of oneself, the instruction noted. It said that when love is perfect, the sacrifice is complete.
Allison LeDoux, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage and Family, which organizes the Mass, called the couple’s names and Bishop McManus led them in exchanging a blessing with each other. After Mass they had their photos taken with him and received his congratulatory certificates.
Some told The Catholic Free Press their stories, in which faith was key.
In 50 years there were many good days and a few struggles, said Deacon Michael Corby, who serves at St. Joseph-St. Pius X in Leicester. “What held us together was remembering that God called us together ... to finish the race,” he said. “St. Paul didn’t say, ‘Runhalf the race.’” With struggles “we just have to put our trust in God,” added his wife, Linda. “He has his hands on us.”
Marie Dio said it is mainly God that she and her husband of 50 years, Deacon Robert Dio, have in common. They are very different. “I think you need to maintain your individuality and you need to celebrate the differences,” she said. Fifty years went fast, though “when it’s happening, it’s painfully slow sometimes,” said her husband, who serves at St. Peter Parish and St. Andrew the Apostle Mission in Worcester. He talked about waiting for their children to grow up and hoping they did their best raising them.
The Noberinis, of Immaculate Conception Parish in Worcester, just wanted to have a child. They had celebrated their 10th anniversary, and lost his father and grandfather and her mother in the preceding six months, when Mrs. Noberini learned she was pregnant. “We had a peace lily at my father’s funeral,” Mr. Noberini said. “It wouldn’t bloom.” But it developed one bloom a month for the first six months of his wife’s pregnancy, then lost three blooms, then one more each of the last two months, like a countdown. “Then Jen gave birth and it never bloomed again,” her husband said. “I have a strong belief it was my father’s prayers” that helped the lily bloom and his wife give birth to Isabella Rose. Mrs. Noberini said they felt his father’s presence. Their secret for a 25-year-marriage is their faith, she said.
She said she was Baptist but didn’t attend church. He said her cousin got her to hang out with him and his friends. They were“good kids,” involved with church. He was 20, she was 15 or 16. They started dating when she was 18. Mr. Noberini said there was a time when he didn’t take his faith seriously, and a time when he wondered, “Am I called to be apriest, a monk, or a married man?” Monks “wanted me to be a monk” but “I loved her too much,” and God and the Blessed Mother made his calling to marriage clear, he said. While they were dating she became a Catholic, and he was confirmed, at an Easter Vigil at St. Mary’s Monastery in Petersham.
Vernon Wilson also became Catholic before marrying. He said he occasionally attended Protestant services when growing up. While in the military, he started “marching to Mass” with fellow servicemen, influenced by the girl he’d met when a date stood him up. He went to a dance at St. Louis High School in Webster without a date “and met my wife (Felicia, a junior there) and we danced once, twice and the rest of the night.”
“And they’ve been dancing ever since,” added their daughter Diane Bennett.  She and her friend Joseph Camere attended Sunday’s Mass with her parents, who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary April 26.The Wilsons said they belong to St. Louis Parish in Webster, where they have done couple-to-couple ministry and served in other ways. Asked their secret for a long marriage, Mrs. Wilson replied, “Just love. Good communication. Be best of friends."