Faith-filled spouses from across Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains have been recognised for their enduring love and fidelity during a heartwarming Wedding Anniversary Mass.
More than 400 people converged on St Patrick’s Cathedral to celebrate the Mass alongside 100 married couples, ranging from honeymooners to couples married over six decades. Bonded to each other and to Christ, they held hands and stole glances while listening with open, humble and surrendered hearts to the Word of the Lord.
The longest-married couple present, at 64 years, was Elaine and Les Gade.
More than 400 people attended the annual Wedding Anniversary Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta. Image: Alphonsus Fok/ Diocese of Parramatta.
“Today, we honour and thank these couples for their commitment to Christian marriage and to the values of the Gospel,” Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv told the gathered faithful.
He said this while presiding over the Solemn Mass on Sunday 27 October, reminding us that “everyone in this church, whatever our past history, is capable now of loving and receiving love.”
The Diocese of Parramatta’s Wedding Anniversary Mass is an annual event where newlyweds and long-standing couples pack into the cathedral to renew their vows and receive a blessing.
Greg and Judith Dunn celebrate 60 years of marriage at the annual Wedding Anniversary Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta. Image: Alphonsus Fok/ Diocese of Parramatta.
‘We’re very opposite but together we make one’: Judith Dunn
For Greg Dunn, reliving his wedding vows after 60 years of wonderful marriage was an emotional moment. Looking dapper in a suit, Greg kissed his wife Judith tenderly on the forehead and pulled her closer to him after receiving the Bishop’s blessing.
“We’re very opposite but together we make one,” Judith said, adding that “marriage is like a shiny shoe — it rubs and it pinches, but now we’re like a pair of old slippers because we’re so comfortable together.”
The pair met and fell in love in their teens whilst volunteering with the Scouts.
“We were both giving ourselves, and here we are still doing it,” Judith said, listing church volunteering, leading cathedral tours, and caring for the graves at St John’s Cemetery in Parramatta (Australia’s oldest surviving European cemetery) among their common passions. That’s not counting the volunteering they do separately.
Asked what has kept them together over the decades, Judith said simply: “It’s hitting speed bumps but working your way through it and not giving up.”
Also present was a family friend, Sister Genevieve Walsh RSC, a bride of Christ who in January was 60 years professed. “I think they [the Dunns] are a great example of what it is to listen to each other, have compassion, and let each one be themselves,” she said.
Highschool sweethearts Pablo and Nancy Lapa have been married for 50 years. Image: Alphonsus Fok/ Diocese of Parramatta.
Marriage secrets from a couple married 50 years
High school sweethearts 50 years ago, Pablo and Nancy Lapa said they’ve safeguarded their marriage by fully entrusting it to the care of Mother Mary, to whom they always pray. “We ask her to guide us,” Pablo said.
The pair met in school in the Philippines. They were 16. As their classes were single-sex, they stole glances across the corridor and exchanged love notes.
“But then we were called by the priest and told to concentrate on our studies,” Nancy said, laughing at the recollection. “So we listened to him and finished our college education. We got married when we were 25, on 22 June 1974.”
Nancy listed five keys to a healthy and lasting marriage: trust, love, confidence in each other, faithfulness, and a love of God. “We’ve passed these lessons on to our three children,” Nancy said.
Honeymooners Frances and Vincent Jadraque celebrate their first anniversary together. Image: Alphonsus Fok/ Diocese of Parramatta.
‘I found him in the pews’: Frances Jadraque
Penrith honeymooners Frances and Vincent Jadraque met in the church pews. Frances said he fascinated her from afar. “Every time I came to Mass he was already there in the pews and he’d always stay back,” she recounted, smiling.
Married a year ago on October 6, 2023, at St Benedict’s Catholic Church Broadway — the church where they first met — the couple spoke of the power of humour in a relationship. “Also, I think it’s more cheerful if we do things together,” Frances added.
View images from the Annual Wedding Anniversary Mass here or below.
