CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Jerome and Audrey Hennek of Most Precious Blood Parish in Corpus Christi will celebrate 63 years of married life in December but were on hand Sunday, Feb. 12, to get a blessing from Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey along with 40 other couples celebrating anniversaries on World Marriage Day.
Bishop Mulvey thanked the couples for “witnessing to a fidelity, to a commitment that they made, a commitment to one another but as a sacrament, a commitment to Christ.”
“Love is obedience, love is sacrifice,” Bishop Mulvey said. “You have shown and you continue to show the world, your family, the beauty of your commitment to Christ.”
The Henneks were married two days after Christmas, on Dec. 27, 1949, at St. Anthony’s parish in St. Cloud, Minnesota. At 62 years of marriage they had been married the longest of all the couples at the Cathedral on Sunday.
Seven other couples celebrated more than 50 years, 22 couples observed their golden anniversary and 11 couples were celebrating their silver wedding anniversary.
The World Marriage Day, sponsored in the Diocese of Corpus Christi by the Office of Family Life, honored couples celebrating their Silver (25 years) or Golden (50 years) wedding anniversary on 2012. Couples celebrating more than 50 years of marriage were invited to attend. All couples received a certificate signed by Bishop Mulvey commemorating their silver or golden anniversary.
In the Diocese of Corpus Christi, the wedding anniversary Mass began in 1989 and has been celebrated annually ever since. The couples receive either a silver or gold certificate recognizing and honoring their achievement and witness to the sacrament of matrimony.
One participant said that she thought, “It is wonderful for the diocese and the bishop to continue this annual event. With the number of divorces it is nice to see the diocese celebrating marriages and the fact these folks have stayed together for so many years.”
A gentleman said he was very happy to be at the Mass because he had been sick and was unsure if he was going to make it. “It is a great blessing to me and my wife to celebrate our 50th anniversary and for Bishop Mulvey to take the time to be with us,” he said.
At the onset of celebrating the anniversary Mass silver jubilarians outnumbered golden jubilarians almost 2 to 1. Changes in marriage statistics over the past two decades have reversed that trend as more couples are celebrating their 25th at a later age due to earlier divorces, Deacon Stephen Nolte, Director of the Office of Family Life, said.
“It will be interesting to watch this phenomenon in the future as changes continue to occur. Hopefully these numbers will stabilize as we continue to strive to build up and strengthen marriage,” Deacon Nolte said.
Bishop Mulvey, along with all of the bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, places marriage and the family high on the list of priorities in the Church today. Due to a divorce rate that remains in the 50 percentiles and a high incidence of cohabiting couples, diocesan offices around the country, and in particular here in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, are working to improve pre-marriage formation and increase the awareness of couples everywhere to the harm caused to society by divorce and cohabitation.
“It is incumbent upon us to recognize and honor those couples who have worked together for the good of the couple and their family. People just need to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. It requires hard work and dedication, and most importantly a spirit of self-sacrifice for the building up of the couple rather than the individual,” Deacon Nolte said.
Manuel and Carmela García, also in attendance at the Mass, celebrated again on Feb. 26—the exact date of their wedding anniversary— at the St., Joseph Mission in Palito Blanco. Father Epi Rodríguez of San Diego, who performed the original ceremony, blessed them at their golden anniversary Mass at the same chapel.