It can be challenging for Catholics to find and meet others who share their values. As a 24-year-old single Catholic guy I had hoped that Catholic online dating might be the answer, whereby I could find lots of people who put God at the heart of their search for a partner. After some time searching I was left disappointed; all I could find were US-based Catholic websites that charged heavy fees, or those that looked outdated and uninspiring. I had conversations with friends from my parish who shared these thoughts, but it wasn’t for some time that I had the idea of doing something about it myself.
I’d been working for a few years in IT consultancy, but I felt as if something else was calling me and I was eager to experience a different way of life. In September 2014, with no real plans, I left my job and booked a one-way flight to Buenos Aires. A contact through a Church group I went to in London introduced me to an incredible parish and missionary group there. Through my experiences with this parish, I was deeply moved by the passion and vibrancy of faith they practised. What struck me most was the sense of community, and how through this community flowed a contagious enthusiasm to act upon their faith through good works.
Thinking of how I could apply my own skills, I decided to dedicate my time there to creating a Catholic dating site for people in Britain. I wanted to fill that space I felt was missing: to create an active online community enabling British single Catholics to meet each other. I wanted it to be something that was deeply rooted in the teachings of the Church, had no barriers to stop people using it, such as high fees, and was as easy to use on a mobile as any modern app. I bought the domain catholiconlinedating.co.uk and started to pull these ideas together.
I spent the next few months building and testing the site. Since I made everything myself costs were low, and I had the flexibility to customise it for a traditional Catholic audience. I built in daily readings, profile sections dedicated to key Catholic issues, and checks to ensure that the quality of the community would be high. The biggest challenge for any website that handles people’s data is security. When I looked in more detail at some of the existing Catholic dating websites, I found that they were failing to take even basic steps to protect their users. For example, the green lock that you see on the left of the search bar when you visit Facebook or your online bank indicates a secure encrypted connection. Without this green lock it’s possible for others to eavesdrop on personal data sent through the internet browser.
I had worked with critical client data in my previous job, so rather than being an awkward challenge it was a great opportunity for me to apply some of the same data security principles on a smaller scale. By spring 2015 the site was starting to take shape. I invited my single Catholic friends to start trying it out and used this quiet time to experiment with features and build on their feedback. When I moved back to London that summer we had just under 100 active members.
As the response was encouragingly positive I began to spread the word more widely in Church groups and on Facebook. Since the summer we’ve been steadily growing. Now, we have more than 500 active users, and we’re seeing up to 50 new registrations every week. Around 55 per cent of our users are viewing the site from their mobile devices. Almost all are based in Britain, though we’ve had requests from some users to make a similar version for Canada and Italy. It’s early days on news of marriages, but we’ve already “connected” hundreds of people through the site.
The Catholic Church in Britain is such a rich mixture of backgrounds and generations, and for me it’s been amazing having this reflected in the cross-section of people registering and using the website. When you start browsing it’s inspiring to see just how many committed Catholics there are spread across the UK, and of all ages; particularly when you read some of their answers to the profile questions such as “What does your faith mean to you?” At the start of a New Year and as we approach Valentine’s Day, it’s a perfect opportunity for single Catholics to try something new. To register and fill out a profile at catholiconlinedating.co.uk takes about 10 minutes: a first step that will open the door to a community of others who are also acting upon a calling to a Catholic relationship and marriage.
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