Jeff Gurske of St. Edward Parish, Keizer, stands at Rite of Election.
Sentinel photo by Gerry Lewin
When it came to faith, Lisa Snook had more than 40 years of unanswered questions.
A personal trainer and bookkeeper, she had been raised a Presbyterian, but never baptized. She had tried many churches over the years and felt underfed, spiritually speaking.
Then a friend invited her to Mass.
“From the moment I walked in, I felt at home,” she says. “I felt like I belonged. The community was amazing. It means a lot to me. There is a certain time in life when you really want to know who you are.”
Snook, 45, will be baptized this Easter at Christ the King Parish in Milwaukie. She calls her move “the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
She’s one of about 850 people in Oregon who will join the church this year. New Catholics range from a Vietnam war veteran to an 11-year-old who used to think the tabernacle at his church was an espresso machine.
Tylene Thomsen, a nurse who lives in Roseburg, is also on the path to the church. She has been on the fringes for decades, having raised her three daughters Catholic. When her 26-year marriage fell apart last year, it became clear that this was the time for her to join the spiritual family officially.
She had been baptized a Methodist and attended a Nazarene community with her great grandfather. As she matured, she met Catholics who became friends and she started attending Mass and getting so involved that most people at St. Joseph Parish thought she was already Catholic.
“I like the sense of community,” says Thomsen, who works nights at the VA medical center.
Peter Nosack, 72, was baptized a Catholic and even has a sister who has been a nun for more than 60 years. But he was divorced decades ago after a brief marriage and felt he could no longer go to Mass.
But he has missed it. He and Cheree, his wife of 30 years, plan to join the church at St. Paul Parish in Silverton. They own a farm, restaurant and antique shop in northeast Salem. Cheree has come to admire the solid teaching of the church. Her hairdresser, not a Catholic, has been reading up on the church and is also a fan, she says.
Hundreds of those who will be initiated into the church at Easter are being recognized across Oregon. At rites in Roseburg, North Bend and Portland last week and in Eugene and Portland this weekend, Archbishop John Vlazny is welcoming and blessing catechumens (those to be baptized) and candidates (those already baptized who will enter full communion with the church, through Eucharist and confirmation.)
“It was a big day for them,” says Mary-Jo Schultz, director of faith formation at Christ the King in Milwaukie. “They said they would remember the day the rest of their lives. They are starting to feel like they are on solid ground.”
Bishop Robert Vasa welcomed catechumens and candidates from the Diocese of Baker to the cathedral in Baker City last weekend.
He told those gathered about hope and the need to set sights on things that really matter. Everything turns to dust and ashes, the bishop said, but the Risen Lord lasts forever.
“Placing our hope in Him, which we commit to do at the rite of election, assures that our hope is not founded on sand but on solid rock,” Bishop Vasa said. “He in whom we hope will always remain.”
Some east-side parishes hold their own rites of election, especially those far from their cathedral.
At all the rites, the names of those to be baptized are written in a large tome called the Book of the Elect. The title connotes the primary truth about those who are joining the church — they were chosen by God and are being affirmed by the church.
“The good news we celebrate is that God has voted for each one of us,” Archbishop Vlazny said during the rite at St. Mary Cathedral Sunday.
The Gospel used for the rites in western Oregon told the story of Jesus choosing Peter as the rock on which to build the church. Archbishop Vlazny reminded the Catholics-to-be that the rock is still with us in the successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict.
“He is both the source and symbol of our unity in Christ as Christian believers,” the archbishop said, citing the pope’s great theme of Christian hope.
There are lots of reasons not to hope — personal sin, suffering in the world, church scandal. But the archbishop said he is a hopeful person anyway because of “my precious gift of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to dwell among us precisely because of all our troubles.” He called God’s coming to the rescue the central truth of our Catholic faith.
“We are all here because God took the initiative,” the archbishop explained. “In some way or another we all heard God’s call to follow him as his disciples in this Catholic community.”
He told the large crowd that Christian faith is about loving others, especially the poor and needy. But, he warned, other voices will try to draw them in other directions. “You folks have obviously listened well to God’s call,” he said. “I remind you that you have to keep listening.”
The crowd laughed when the archbishop pointed out that when they wake up the Monday after Easter, they will discover they are still not perfect — like the rest of us. He encouraged them by quoting a sign he saw in one of the parishes last year — “If you find yourself heading in the wrong direction, remember that God allows U-turns!”
Rick Gannon, 50, is a software supervisor from Gladstone. He’ll be baptized at Christ the King in Milwaukie. A former small-town city councilman, he is steeled to public life. But in the moments before he signed the Book of the Elect, he was nervous. Somehow, that act seemed irrevocable.
“As soon as I signed my name, I immediately became calm and eveything was OK,” Gannon says.
The catechumens and candidates will receive the Easter sacraments at Easter vigils across the state March 22.
“They were drawn to the church because of other people they have seen,” says Jeff Schmitt, who helps catechemens and candidates prepare at Immaculate Conception Parish in Stayton. “They said, ‘Wow, this is something that I want.’”
