A couple kiss after renewing their wedding vows at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles Feb. 12. Married couples from throughout Southern California who are celebrating 25, 50, 60 – or more – years of marriage during 2012 renewed their wedding vows the Sunday before Valentine’s Day, at the World Marriage Day Masses. (CNS photo/CNS photo/Victor Aleman, Vida Nueva)
‘Fight like heck and kiss and make up’
By Elizabeth Skalski
eskalski@catholicreview.org
Olga Petrolini still looks at her husband with a twinkle in her eye, even after 73 years of marriage.
The 91-year-old parishioner of St. Michael the Archangel, Overlea, said the secret to her marriage with husband Dante Petrolini, 92, is “to be together. Do everything together. Fight like heck and kiss and make up.”
The Petrolinis were honored Feb.12 as this year’s longest-married couple in the Archdiocese of Baltimore during the World Marriage Day Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.Other archdioceses across the nation also marked World Marraige Day with Masses honoring couples.
The Baltimore Mass was celebrated after Catholic leaders testified in Annapolis Feb. 10 in support of traditional marriage before members of the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee and Health and Government Operations Committee in a joint hearing.
This year’s proposed same-sex marriage law, or the Civil Marriage Protection Act, is expected to pass the Senate but will face a battle in the House. A similar bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland passed in the Senate last year but failed in the House of Delegates because there weren’t enough votes for the bill to pass.
The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which held its hearing on the bill, was expected to vote Feb. 9 but did not. The House version of the bill was introduced Feb. 1.
Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, who celebrated the Mass honoring married couples, called attention in his homily to the importance of marriage.
“Our society and our world is in dire need of your witness of what the grace of God has accomplished in your marriage and deepened in your love for each other as the days and years go by,” Bishop Rozanski said. “Our world is in dire need of the witness of your sacrifice for one another and for your children, born out of the love that is your marriage.”
Christian marriage – between a man and a woman – is a sign of God’s love in the world, which “gives to man and woman the capacity to love one another so deeply that they participate in the very creative love of God,” Bishop Rozanski said.
During the liturgy, about 75 couples stood to be recognized for 25 to 49 years of marriage; about 30 couples were recognized for 50 or more years of marriage. Couples also renewed their marriage vows.
Kathy Passauer said her 32-year marriage to husband Deacon Fred Passauer, 60, deacon at St. John the Evangelist, Severna Park, is successful because of their faith in God, good communication and the ability to forgive.
“Communication is really the key,” said Kathy Passauer, 55. “Fred and I really find God [and uninterrupted time together] in the outdoors – walking.”
Deacon Passauer said marriage is successful when “realizing that God needs to be a part of your relationship.”
“I think there is the opportunity on days like today, World Marriage Day, that gives rise to [the fact] that marriage is such an important part of our community,” Deacon Passauer said. “It’s a wonderful vocation to be a part of as a sacrament in the Catholic Church, to be beacons to all persons – that’s what we’re called to do.”