Posted on 02/26/2005 6:35:26 AM PST by NYer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- During this year's Easter Vigil Masses, tens of thousands of people across the country will be welcomed into the Catholic Church.
Last year more than 150,000 Americans were baptized as Catholics or joined in full communion with the church during the Easter Vigil.
Those who are not yet baptized are called catechumens. At Easter they receive all three sacraments of Christian initiation -- baptism, confirmation and their first Eucharist. Those already baptized in other churches or who were baptized Catholic but not raised in the faith are called candidates. At Easter they receive confirmation and the Eucharist.
During the first two weeks of Lent, catechumens and candidates across the country gathered -- most often in special diocesan ceremonies led by a bishop -- to participate in a Rite of Election, for catechumens, or a Call to Continuing Conversion, for candidates.
Those who choose to go through the RCIA program are men and women, young and old.
In the Archdiocese of Omaha, Neb., among the 530 people in 54 parishes who are preparing to enter the Catholic Church this Easter is 10-year-old Michael Aufenkamp Jr., who will be joining Sacred Heart Parish in Norfolk. He said he was "very excited" to take part in the Rite of Election and meet Omaha Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss.
"It'll make me feel a little bit more a part of things," he told The Catholic Voice, Omaha's archdiocesan newspaper.
Young Michael said he was initially joining the church because his mom, Kay, is also becoming a Catholic this year. But now he said he is choosing Catholicism because he is "closer to God" and he is "excited to know everything about God and make new friends."
Another young catechumen is 8-year-old Katherine Williams, from Rock Island, Ill., who is credited with bringing her mother to the church. The mother and daughter are among 144 catechumens and 249 candidates this year in the Peoria Diocese.
Katherine's mother, Lisa Powell Williams, who was raised Methodist, said she was inspired by her daughter's faith, rooted in her experience at Jordan Catholic School in Rock Island for the past three years.
Last year when Katherine's class was preparing for first Communion, Katherine decided not to join them and instead to wait for her mother. In an interview with The Catholic Post, Peoria's diocesan newspaper, she said she told her mom: "You and I get to do something special."
In the state of Oregon -- in the Portland Archdiocese and Baker Diocese -- one of nearly 800 people entering the final weeks of Catholic faith formation is 29-year-old Amy Mevis, who was raised Catholic, but as she put it she was "out" of the church for a "really long time."
Mevis, who will be confirmed at Easter at St. Edward Parish in North Plains, Ore., said thinking of the future of her three children -- ages 10, 5 and 3 -- prompted her return to the church.
But it is not always youngsters who inspire candidates and catechumens. Eighty-one-year-old Harold Welch said he always wanted to join the faith tradition of his wife, Juanita, but they never could quite find the time to attend classes. Welch, who will be baptized at Sacred Heart Parish in Warrensburg, Mo., is one of 243 catechumens and 384 candidates in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
"Better late than never," he told The Catholic Key, newspaper of the Missouri diocese.
"We've been married 35 years and he finally decided to be Catholic," Juanita Welch added. "We have the time because I retired to take care of him. There is no excuse now."
In the Diocese of Austin, Texas, Dana Haywood plans to join the Catholic faith his wife recently rediscovered.
Haywood, who was baptized in a Baptist church 16 years ago, told The Catholic Spirit, Austin's diocesan newspaper, that he was repeatedly encouraged by his wife to read books on Catholicism and was particularly impressed with the writings of Scott Hahn, a former Protestant minister who converted to Catholicism.
"I love the Baptist church and its emphasis on Scripture, but now the Bible has a new meaning and richness. I can't wait to make my first Communion," said Haywood, who will be baptized along with his 15-year-old son at St. Mary Parish in Brenham. Haywood is among 351 candidates and 529 catechumens in the Austin Diocese.
Across the country, large numbers of candidates and catechumens participated in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion services, including 1,000 in the Archdiocese of Washington; 710 in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and 247 in the Diocese of Lexington, Ky. The Diocese of Arlington, Va., expects more than 1,000 to join the church at Easter; the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., will welcome 486 new Catholics; and the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., will have more than 400.
The Chicago Archdiocese has more than 1,400 candidates and catechumens; the Cincinnati Archdiocese, 1,287; the Boston Archdiocese, 543; the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, 208; the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., 370; and the Diocese of Green Bay, Wis., 325; the Diocese of Honolulu, 307; and the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., 174.
The Detroit Archdiocese will welcome 1,489 new Catholics this Easter, 204 more than the archdiocese had the previous year.
Mercy Sister Georgette Zalewska, RCIA director in the Detroit archdiocesan Department of Christian Worship, said the increased numbers from last year's ceremonies show that parishes "are really reaching out with their evangelization efforts."
The numbers also mean something to Kathy Shea, religious education director of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Wilmington, Ill. The Rite of Election at the Cathedral of St. Raymond in Joliet, Ill., included 220 people.
"I think it's extraordinary that so many people are coming into the church now because it shows that we have risen above the scandals and problems that have plagued us in recent years," she told the Catholic Explorer, newspaper of the Joliet Diocese.
"The excitement among people new to the church has a lot to do with finding a new home," said Dominican Sister Mary Buttimer, RCIA director at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bend, Ore., in the Baker Diocese.
"It is like a discovery, too, an expedition," she told the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Baker Diocese and Portland Archdiocese. "It's when they answer that they are ready for the step of faith that says, 'I don't know what's coming down the pike. I don't know all the politics. I don't know what I'll be asked to do, but it is something I feel called to do.'"
At Rite of Election services in Kansas City-St. Joseph, candidates and catechumens were urged to see the importance of their former religious traditions in forming foundations of faith.
Coadjutor Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph urged them to recognize that the faith they received in Christian baptism "is not being diminished or discarded in any way by your entering the Catholic Church," but would "only be deepened."
Are you a non-Catholic pastor or layman with interest in the Catholic Church?
The purpose of The Coming Home Network International (CHNetwork) is to provide fellowship, encouragement and support for pastors and laymen of other traditions (Protestant, Orthodox, etc..) who are somewhere along the journey or have already converted to the Catholic Church. The CHNetwork is committed to assisting and standing beside all inquirers, serving as a friend and an advocate.
Scott Hahn’s The Lamb's Supper - The Mass as Heaven on Earth.
Foreword by Fr. Benedict Groeschel.
Part One - The Gift of the Mass
Hahn begins by describing the first mass he ever attended.
"There I stood, a man incognito, a Protestant minister in plainclothers, slipping into the back of a Catholic chapel in Milwaukee to witness my first Mass. Curiosity had driven me there, and I still didn't feel sure that it was healthy curiosity. Studying the writings of the earliest Christians, I'd found countless references to "the liturgy," "the Eucharist," "the sacrifice." For those first Christians, the Bible - the book I loved above all - was incomprehensible apart from the event that today's Catholics called "the Mass."
"I wanted to understand the early Christians; yet I'd had no experience of liturgy. So I persuaded myself to go and see, as a sort of academic exercise, but vowing all along that I would neither kneel nor take part in idolatry."
I took my seat in the shadows, in a pew at the very back of that basement chapel. Before me were a goodly number of worshipers, men and women of all ages. Their genuflections impressed me, as did their apparent concentration in prayer. Then a bell rang, and they all stood as the priest emerged from a door beside the altar.
Unsure of myself, I remained seated. For years, as an evangelical Calvinist, I'd been trained to believe that the Mass was the ultimate sacrilege a human could commit. The Mass, I had been taught, was a ritual that purported to "resacrifice Jesus Christ." So I would remain an observer. I would stay seated, with my Bible open beside me.
As the Mass moved on, however, something hit me. My Bible wasn't just beside me. It was before me - in the words of the Mass! One line was from Isaiah, another from Psalms, another from Paul. The experience was overwhelming. I wanted to stop everything and shout, "Hey, can I explain what's happening from Scripture? This is great!" Still, I maintained my observer status. I remained on the sidelines until I heard the priest pronounce the words of consecration: "This is My body . . . This is the cup of My blood."
Then I felt all my doubt drain away. As I saw the priest raise that white host, I felt a prayer surge from my heart in a whisper: "My Lord and my God. That's really you!"
I was what you might call a basket case from that point. I couldn't imagine a greater excitement than what those words had worked upon me. Yet the experience was intensified just a moment later, when I heard the congregation recite: "Lamb of God . . . Lamb of God . . . Lamb of God," and the priest respond, "This is the Lamb of God . . ." as he raised the host. In less than a minute, the phrase "Lamb of God" had rung out four times. From long years of studying the Bible, I immediately knew where I was. I was in the Book of Revelation, where Jesus is called the Lamb no less than twenty-eight times in twenty-two chapters. I was at the marriage feast that John describes at the end of that very last book of the Bible. I was before the throne of heaven, where Jesus is hailed forever as the Lamb. I wasn't ready for this, though - I was at Mass!
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Been there!
Done that!
And I encourage any one thinking about it to seriously look into taking the plunge!
It's the one true Church, in my view, the one that has been here since the time of Apostles. But there will always be at least some false prophets and bad shepherds misleading the flock.
When I came into the Church it was a different problem: a priest who was so matter-of-fact that having conditional baptism (I was in fact already properly baptized) was much like getting a haircut.
It's still the one true Church, however, even if not all the shepherds do their proper job. The more people who come in who want to follow Jesus and the teachings of the Church in spite of the weakness of their pastors, the better.
Find an orthodox parish (I would have complained to the bishop - but then our former archbishop was a profoundly orthodox man, and we have fairly good hopes for the new one as well). When we fled the Episcopal Church, we did a fair amount of research and found a nice, old-fashioned, orthodox parish with no New Age nonsense and a dreadnought of an Irish rector who wouldn't stand for any such.
It is truly sad to read of this unfortunate and totally misguided experience that you and your wife encountered. As with all religious groups, there are some poor shepherds, and you happened to encounter one.
I recently heard the extraordinary conversion story of a Jewish man. Like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, he was literally confronted by God. He had been well educated in his faith by some of the greates rabbis and the last thought he ever entertained was to become a christian.
After this encounter, he sought the church founded by Christ. He began with the Evangelicals and worked his way through the mainstream protestant denominations. Eventually, his journey led him to the Catholic Church. Having discerned in his heart that this was indeed the Church founded by our Lord, he approached a priest and asked to be baptized into the Cathollic Church. The priest smiled graciously, told him that God wanted him to be the best Jew he could be and sent him on his way. Undeterred, he approached several churches until he found a priest who listened to his story, enrolled him in RCIA and received him into the Catholic Church at that year's Easter Vigil. You can read Roy Schoeman's remarkable story at this link:
A true conversion comes from the heart, through prayer and with God's blessing. As a cradle catholic, I am not surprised by your experience, though disheartened. The Catholic Church is both Western and Eastern. For the past year, I have been attending the Maronite Catholic Church, where portions of the liturgy are in Aramaic, using the words and language of our Lord at the Last Supper. You can learn more about the 23 different liturgies that make up the Western and Eastern Catholic Church, at this link:
To locate an Eastern Catholic Church in your community, go to this link:
DIRECTORY OF EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES
If you are sincere in your beliefs, then pray for those who mislead the flock, shake the dust off your sandals and continue down the path that will lead you home. Rest assured of my prayers for you and all who encounter these poor shepherds.
Pax et Bonum
Sounds like you got the loony nest. I'd try again. There are some bad parishes in our area, too (not as nutty as THAT, Abp Donoghue kept a clean house, but too nutty for me) but discernment and research should guide you to an orthodox parish.
And as I said, I have two children to worry about - that's why I left ECUSA for the Catholic Church.
That's baloney. You walked out over one human being?
I suspect, if you spent two years in the RCIA program with no problems, that you were looking for an excuse to jump. And the nun presented it.
This isn't about "young believers." It's about mature adults. Come back to the Church when you grow up, and realize that belief in Christ does not mean you won't encounter weirdos along the way.
I just have to believe there's more to this than you're telling us, after two years in an RCIA program.
And you mistook a fallible human being for the Bread of Life, which you cannot get outside of the Mass.
What's your real issue with the Catholic Church? Why did you spend two years in an RCIA program, only to walk out over one incident?
Well, you obviously did not have the Catholic Faith, if you left over one incident. And, it is the height of spiritual laziness to use the sexual abuse scandals as an excuse to leave the Church.
Catholics don't leave the Church, when they know what the Eucharist means, and that no individual can tear one's Faith asunder, if one, indeed, believes.
Why did you enter the RCIA, and why did you stay for two years?
Who do you think the Catholic Church (or any church) is? It's the believers inside the Church.
Good luck finding a Church that lives up to your demands that it be a home for saints and not for sinners.
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