At my last job, I worked a lot. I had time for work, exercise, daily mass, and maybe the occasional parish event. That’s it. I wanted a (Catholic) girlfriend but realized that there was just no way for me to connect to all of the Catholics I might want to. And that was frustrating. I lived in Washington, D.C. and knew there were thousands of Catholics all around me — but I had no way to connect with them. It’s hard enough to meet people in your own parish, let alone across the entire diocese. I knew the technology existed, so we gave it a shot.

Dating apps aren’t perfect. Real relationships don’t happen online. But technology can be a wonderful tool that the Church can sanctify. We want to use this technology not to keep people online but to get them offline faster — into the real world, where real relationship happens.