CNS STORY: Thousands prepare to join U.S. Catholic Church this Easter

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CNS Story:

RCIA-ROUNDUP Feb-25-2005 (1,200 words) With photos posted Feb. 24. xxxn

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

By Catholic News Service

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."

- - -

Contributing to this story were Brian Fuchser in Omaha, Nellie Williams in Peoria, Kevin Kelly in Kansas City, Mary Walker in Austin and Jacqueline Pinn in Joliet.

END

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