Thousands prepare to join U.S. Catholic Church this Easter

Catholic News Service ^ | February 25, 2005

[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."

[Ann Archy]

....kiss the Beast?? What are you TALKING about??

[Clemenza]

You won't see me there. Happy Easter nonetheless!

[No Left Turn]

You have no idea what my motives or my intentions were.

I think we, the beast kissers, get the picture.

[farmer18th]

I'm also beginning to see why children aren't safe in your church. Instead of acknowledging a problem, you villify anyone with enough courage to point out a spiritual problem.

[No Left Turn]

an honest narrative about a Catholic horror story

What a whiner. A nun says something about an earth mother and you go all wobbly, and claim you've experienced a "horror story."

[farmer18th]

Read the thread. The same "nun" who asked us to visualize a "white healing light" traversing our bowels asked newly inquiring believers--in the middle of a prayer service--to raise "our arms to our mother, the earth." The priest, instead of eradicating this nonsense, endorsed it! The Bishop in this diocese was the purveyor of the very meditation techniques in question, and the patron of the lectors who changed the God the Father to God the Mother.

Go along with this nonsense? Call this Christianity? Never. I have a certain amount of sympathy for the Catholics, here, who shake their head at this in embarassment for their own church. But the sort of Catholics who close ranks and accuse the rebuker of bearing false witness are, well, blind. What else can I call you?

[No Left Turn]

I'm also beginning to see why children aren't safe in your church.

Oh yeah, no anti-catholicism there. Good thing you're not a Catholic -- now all the children in your life are safe from molestation. Phew. Don't even give them another thought.

[farmer18th]

What a whiner. A nun says something about an earth mother and you go all wobbly, and claim you've experienced a "horror story."

You are a coward. You aren't brave enough to admit that what she did was not only wrong--it was a grave spiritual sin and a VIOLATION OF GOD'S FIRST COMMANDMENT.

God help you.

[No Left Turn]

Call this Christianity?

No. I like my Christians to use one incident -- that may or may not have happened == to launch attacks against an entire religion of 1 billion people. Those are the loving, open minded people I need to hang with.

[Ann Archy]

What does your "Kiss the Beast" mean?

[No Left Turn]

You aren't brave enough to admit that what she did was not only wrong--it was a grave spiritual sin

Please show where I endorsed the action of this nun -- who may or may not exist. And please let me know how this statement doesn't match your logic: a nun sinned, therefore the Catholic church is detestable.

[farmer18th]

I told you. If you are asked to worship anything other than God the Father, through his son, Jesus Christ, you are bowing down to a false god. There IS NO ISSUE MORE CENTRAL TO THE LIFE OF FAITH than this one.

[farmer18th]

Please show where I endorsed the action of this nun -- who may or may not exist.

Why? You've accused me of false witness again. She does exist. She acted in the manner I have described, as did her priest, as did her Bishop. But if you don't believe me, why would you possibly be interested in my explanations?

The better--and truer course--for you, is to admit that your church has colossal problems--not the least of which is your blind, closed-ranked prejudice against anyone who rebukes you.

[No Left Turn]

The better--and truer course--for you, is to admit that your church has colossal problems--not the least of which is your blind, closed-ranked prejudice against anyone who rebukes you.

She acted in a manner you described, and I'm not sure how that indicts a religion. She's one person. Again, I ask: what denomination are you? If you tell me I promise to be back within the day, after a google and lexis-nexis search, to show you that you also have heretical and dopey people in whatever church you are part of. Then, I expect you to begin the search for a new church, as you don't seem to abide sinners -- strange notion, farmer18th, for someone who claims to be a Christian.

You know it's funny. I have been Catholic all my life, and never heard a priest, nun or church representative espouse Protestant bashing or the ideology of using an individuals' misfortune of sin to impugn a group of people. But people like you are all about that. How does that conform with the Christian virtue of loving thy neighbor as you would love yourself, and the Christian virtue that we're all sinners.

[farmer18th]

She acted in a manner you described, and I'm not sure how that indicts a religion. She's one person.

You seem to ignore that her actions were blessed by both the Priest and the Bishop. How else am I to understand the character of your church, if not by it's highest local authorities?

If you read the thread thoroughly, you would have seen that I have praised many parishioners who evinced their love for the Lord, but how do you trust your children to a Bishop who won't take the most simple steps to correct a GRAVE spiritual error?

We are all sinners, and because we are sinners, we are to engage in constant, loving, HONEST rebuke. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."

Can you guess who said that?

[No Left Turn]

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."

Okay...I rebuke you for the sin of not forgiving a nun who sinned and using one act as a cudgel against the Catholic Church and all its faithful. And I forgive you for not telling me your denomination so that I may show you the fault in your logic that holds one should leave a church because someone (or some three) in that church sinned.

I forgive you for not knowing how truly odd such a stance is coming from someone so Christian as you. I forgive you for the smarmy claim that you've "praised many (Catholic) parishoners who evinced their love for the Lord", and for the mock fret you have for the safety of those parishoners' children, which exploits pain and suffering to serve your petty need to gain traction in an argument that has exposed you as a hypocrite and Catholic-basher. I forgive you for being ignorant to the fact that such pain and suffering is also caused by protestant ministers, rabiis, imams, monks, and other fallible humans.

I forgive you for claiming that we're all sinners, while only mentioning the sins of others and not those you have committed.

Now that you've been rebuked, repent. Or don't. I forgive you either way.

[philetus]

The one true church is comprised of all the followers of Christ.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The one true church is not the catholic church because all followers of Jesus are not catholic.

[farmer18th]

Okay...I rebuke you for the sin of not forgiving a nun who sinned and using one act as a cudgel against the Catholic Church and all its faithful

Every once in a while, you get the sinking feeling, on Free Republic, that you might be arguing with a bright, but belligerant, fourteen year old. Assuming this is not the case, I remind you that our remonstrance was against more than just a single nun and more than just a single incident. (Read the thread.) You persist in ignoring that. You have lied by calling my remarks a "cudgel against...all its faithful." I have repeatedly made a distinction between the monolithic and sometimes evil positions of the church, and some of the good believers who worship within it. If you can grasp the distinctions here, it may be fruitful to continue, but random false witnesses about my positions on other churches and my motivations for registering this complaint won't get you anywhere. It is much better, as others have done here, to admit that the Catholic church--like all churches--has some serious blemishes that need healing.

The very nature of the "catholic" church with its pride in broad inclusion is the warning that should be given to all of NYers invitees. I have never witnessed, in years of attending different churches, the sort of spiritual heresies I saw in this particular parish and this diocese. New believers need to be warned to be cautious, vigilant, and on guard against woves in the flock, not to mention the vicious, parochial spiritual clanishness of people like you.

[Barnacle]

NYer is calling you back to THE church, as he puts it. Make sure you find a parish that believes in, and follows, the Bible.

Actually, NYer is a lady, and I mean that in the most complementary sense of the word.

Your points are well taken. A few years ago I would have agreed entirely with them. Recently, I've taken a new attitude that rather than shopping for the right church as I used to, I now believe that it important for one to stay where he is and try to bring about change.

I think we have a duty to bring about positive change where things aren't totally right. That's where you are most needed.

Follow the acts of the Apostles.

[Barnacle]

May I inquire in what diocese you were subjected to such blasphemy?