Poland's Catholics go on-line to find the right partner

Two years ago, three students from Warsaw, Poland - Maciek, Pawel and Agnieszka, all single and Catholic, founded Poland's first online Catholic dating service. Right now the community is 27 thousand strong and growing. Do Catholic singles in Poland have to go online to find a spouse?

Only 22 months in operation and already 45 marriages, 81 engaged couples, and 230 dating couples. Przeznaczeni.pl or Matchedinheaven.pl - the largest and most successful Polish online Catholic dating service is breaking records for popularity. Maciej Koper, one of the founders of 'The zone for people with values' is stunned by the fruits that his initiative is bringing.

"We have a great success. I never expected that we would have such a big success. I am very proud, because we just had the first kid, Jan Karol, who is two weeks now. We are also working on a new service and I think that in the new year, we will launch English and Spanish versions of the service."

Matchedinheaven.pl is different from other dating services. It gives people with similar values a chance to get together and form friendships based on good values, says Koper:

"We give the chance to people who share the same values and beliefs, to meet each other, to grow up to the relation, to spend time in a valuable way. When you register in our service, you answer questions about how you imagine your family, how many kids you want to have, what is your motivation, who is your spiritual authority. You get to know what a person thinks about life, it's not only about fun."

Solid foundations and a healthy, conservative lifestyle seems to be what draws young people to the service:

[BOY] "Actually, I am looking for true love. And I'm sure that true love is always connected with real values. Somebody told me that at przeznaczeni.pl there is a lot of valuable girls and that is the point why I am here."

[GIRL] "I am here because I want to fall in love and find a good person to spend my whole life with."

[BOY] "This place is really important for people who think seriously about family, for those who think that values like chastity are very important in life."

[GIRL] "I am here because I want to meet people who share similar family values and God. And I just want to fall in love."

How is it that there is a need for specifically a Catholic dating service in a country that is over 90% Catholic? Maciek Koper again:

"When I registered in a regular dating service, I saw things like 'my preferred sex position', so I thought you can't find a right place for people in Poland, even if it's a Catholic country, when you want to meet the right girl. I mean, it's pretty hard to pick up a girl in a church, when she is praying, and it's also a little bit difficult to talk to a girl at a disco about Rosary. That's why mainly we opened this service."

For sure, Catholics in Poland don't have to go online to find a spouse, but if they choose to, matchedinheaven.pl seems to be a good place to start.