Thousands take final steps toward joining church

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Across the United States this Lent tens of thousands of prospective Catholics began the final phases of joining the church, a process that will culminate with the sacraments of Christian initiation at the Easter Vigil.

For catechumens, people not yet baptized, the final part of the journey began with a Rite of Election on or near the first Sunday of Lent. For candidates, who are already baptized Christians, the start of Lent meant participating in a Call to Continuing Conversion.

Catechumens will receive baptism, confirmation and first Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Candidates will enter full communion with the church by receiving confirmation and first Eucharist.

In the Washington Archdiocese 1,133 catechumens and candidates participated in Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion services. Across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va., there were 697.

Among other dioceses, there were 560 in Little Rock, Ark.; more than 500 in Nashville, Tenn.; 264 in Albany, N.Y.; 269 in Hartford, Conn.; and 325 in Wilmington, Del.

When the bishops' national evangelization office did a nationwide survey two years ago, it found that about 150,000 people joined the church that year through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. The rite, a catechetical-sacramental program, reaches its peak in the Lenten final steps and Easter initiation into the church.

Some, like Andy Fox of St. Ann's Parish in Wilmington, were prompted by a pending marriage. He and his Catholic fiancee, Kelly Metkiff, are getting married in June and plan to raise their children in the church.

"It was time," Fox told The Dialog, Wilmington diocesan newspaper. "I've been going to St. Ann's for over a year; it was time to enter into full communion."

Others, like Bob Lang of St. Mary Immaculate Parish in Plainfield, Ill., have been influenced by years of marriage to a Catholic. Lang, a lifelong Lutheran, said he had been attending Mass for almost three decades with his wife, Peggy, but one day last year he had an unexpected experience when the priest elevated the chalice and pronounced Christ's words, "Do this in memory of me." It struck him that he was not fulfilling that call, he said, and a few days later he entered the parish's RCIA program.

The Joliet Diocese, where Plainfield is located, has nearly 200 candidates and nearly 200 catechumens preparing to enter the church this Easter.

In the neighboring Diocese of Peoria, Ill., there are 149 catechumens and 284 candidates.

In Hawaii, Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu flew from one island to another early in Lent to preside at Rite of Election ceremonies. The diocese has 188 catechumens and 125 candidates this year.

Figures in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., highlighted a significant phenomenon in the church today -- the large number of baptized Catholics who for one reason or another did not go on to learn the faith and receive first Communion and confirmation as children.

In his column in the March 11 issue of The Tablet, Brooklyn diocesan newspaper, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said that in ceremonies the previous Sunday he had welcomed 312 catechumens and 478 candidates. Of the candidates, he said, only 66 had been baptized in other Christian churches; 412 were baptized Catholic but had not received confirmation or their first Communion.

In New Jersey, there were more than 600 candidates and more than 300 catechumens in the Newark Archdiocese. There were 182 catechumens at the Rite of Election in the neighboring Diocese of Trenton, which this year departed from past practice and held all Call to Continuing Conversion rites at the parish level instead of bringing those participants together for a diocesan ceremony.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Archdiocese had 440 catechumens and 524 candidates and the Greensburg Diocese reported that 85 catechumens and 165 candidates participated in ceremonies the first two weekends of Lent. The Pittsburgh Diocese reported that nearly 25,000 people have been initiated into the church through the RCIA since 1988 -- an average of nearly 1,000 a year.

Baltimore's Cardinal William H. Keeler and his two auxiliary bishops presided over three separate ceremonies in different parts of the archdiocese March 5 to welcome a total of 711 people -- 217 catechumens and 494 candidates -- into their final preparations for the sacraments of initiation.

In Lexington, Ky., there were 96 catechumens and 121 candidates. Wichita, Kan., had 216 catechumens and 260 candidates. Des Moines, Iowa, had 115 catechumens and 203 candidates. In Tulsa, Okla., there were 115 catechumens and 240 candidates.

The Seattle Archdiocese was one of the few places where catechumens (717) outnumbered candidates (597).

Sometimes relatives are the significant influence that brings someone to think about joining the church. That was the case for Dawn Jones of Plainfield, Ill., who said she began attending St. Mary Immaculate Parish at the invitation of her cousin, Yolanda Grant. "I started to got to church with her about two years ago and I just felt a connection," Jones told the Catholic Explorer, Joliet's diocesan newspaper. "I just felt like I always belonged there."

Catholic schools can also play a role. In Sheffield Lake, Ohio, Lori Okes began sending her son, Hunter, to St. Thomas the Apostle School because of the educational environment. Hunter, 7, has enthusiastically embraced Catholic practices and last September he and his mother and his grandmother -- Patsy Okes, Lori's mother-in-law -- were baptized together. The adult converts have been attending RCIA classes in preparation for confirmation at Easter.

Patsy Okes, who had attended a number of Christian churches previously but never been baptized, told the Cleveland diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Universe Bulletin, that she had considered becoming a Catholic before but never followed through. "When I saw Hunter kneeling down to pray in his bedroom, I was convinced that now was the time," she said.

The RCIA and the ceremonies culminating in the sacraments of initiation at Easter are used by the church throughout the world. In Canada, for example, the Western Catholic Reporter of Edmonton, Alberta, reported that 299 catechumens and candidates from 37 parishes across the archdiocese participated in the early Lenten ceremonies.

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