300 Couples Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary by Renewing Their Vows Together: 'Very Emotional'
About 300 couples gathered together at a Chicago church on Sunday to celebrate an incredible milestone: 50 years of marriage.
The longtime lovers were surrounded by family as they renewed their vows at Holy Name Cathedral in celebration of their golden wedding anniversaries, according to ABC affiliate WLS-TV.
Each of the happy couples married in 1972 — when disco was in, Pong was popular, and the internet was nonexistent.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich praised the longevity of these relationships in his homily, shared on Holy Name Cathedral's YouTube page, and used a baseball analogy to really drive the message home.
"Two thousand, six hundred and thirty two. Those are the number of games Carl Ripkin Jr. played in a consecutive row," the cardinal said. "And he was honored for that as a man who always showed up. And it was worth celebrating."
And according to his math, 50 years of marriage "involves more than 18,000 days," which he said is worth being proud of.
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Carl Meyer told WLS-TV that he was "very emotional" as he reminisced on five decades with his wife Joyce "and all the experiences together."
"We brought my parents here when they celebrated their 50th," Joyce added. "I always remember that and now we're there, which is hard to believe."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.Each couple has a different secret to keeping their marriage alive for 50 years, as WLS-TV reported.
For Adrienne Micheli, having a sense of humor "is very important," per the outlet. Her husband, Dino Micheli, added, "I learned one thing. She's always right."
"You are the people who since the day that you promised to be true to each other, in good times and bad and in sickness and in health, promising yourself and God, and you have showed up each and every day," the cardinal said Sunday.
"That is worth celebrating," he added.
