Posted on 04/17/2006 4:55:11 PM PDT by NYer
When Jim Pyle says "Happy Easter," the greeting comes with a brighter smile and a certain resonance that only a few others — new Catholic converts like him — can claim today. Easter, the dawn of the Christian year, has an even more"
Two days before they formally entered the church, Jim and Kim Pyle's faces bore the same untroubled expression as young children at their first communion.
Jim Pyle, 46, born and raised a Lutheran, borrowed a quote from Martin Luther himself to explain his conversion: "Here I stand, I can do no other."
Looking back a few years, it does almost seem as if Pyle's conversion was preordained. Like the young Luther, he enthusiastically played the questioner's role, engaging priests, teachers and other students in theological debates, when he was a non-Catholic seventh-grader in a Catholic school.
Even before he ever considered converting, he said, "If I was running from the devil and I had my choice of churches, I would run into a Catholic church. You can feel the presence of God there."
The Pyles' younger son Chad, 8, a student at St. Juliana Catholic School, joined the church with them Saturday, completing the journey for the Pyles, who were baptized as Lutherans. Their older son Christian, now 13, converted as a second-grader at St. Juliana.
The Pyles did not need to be baptized again because the Catholic Church accepts Lutheran baptism. But a convert who has never been baptized, or was baptized in a denomination that the Catholic Church does not acknowledge, must first be baptized as a Catholic before receiving the other sacraments.
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In the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, which includes Palm Beach, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties, more than 400 converts entered the faith at Easter Vigil services Saturday, the traditional day the church admits converts.
Nationwide, 2006 numbers are not complete, but in 2005, 80,000 adults were baptized and 73,000 previously baptized converts received their first communion, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
That figure is dwarfed by the nearly 1 million Catholic infants expected to be baptized in 2006, but adult converts are marked by a characteristic fervor much greater than their numbers might suggest.
And don't imagine that they learn Catholicism by rote, like obedient schoolchildren.
"When people would say that humans can't understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity, that ticked me off," said John Hightower, 50, who joined Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church west of Boca Raton on Saturday. "Some people argued that you should not question God. But I wanted to hammer it out."
Explaining the Holy Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one supreme being — has generated volumes of interpretation by theologians. Still not satisfied, Hightower finally consulted his father-in-law, a former seminary student, and got an explanation he could live with.
"He said the best way he could explain it is that water can take three forms," said Hightower, a photographer.
Hightower is the son of a Roman Catholic father and a Thai Buddhist mother who was educated by Catholic nuns, but he was never baptized. He is married to a lifelong Catholic. Mary Hightower did not cajole her husband into converting, but decided to attend weekly sessions with him. She found her own faith strengthened by the discussions. Their 10-year marriage will be blessed by a priest soon after Easter.
Because Hightower worked 10 years as a police officer, he still struggles with the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment. "I'm still hammering that out," he said.
Marty Knecht, who runs the convert program at Our Lady of Lourdes, does not want unthinking converts. He describes the conversion process as bringing people to the point where they are wholeheartedly willing to accept the Catholic value system, from the Ten Commandments to Vatican doctrine.
Thoughtful conversion takes time.
After Knecht attended a 2004 workshop, Lourdes pastor Francis Reardon agreed to switch from a nine-month cycle to year-round sessions. Individual parishes pick the length of the schedule for conversion study.
The year-round schedule makes more work for Knecht and his teachers and asks a greater commitment from the converts, but it has increased their success rate from 40-50 percent to more than 80 percent, measured by regular church attendance and participation in church activities, he said.
Knecht, a Siemens software engineer who lives in suburban Boca Raton, talks one on one with potential converts every few weeks to determine how the convert is progressing on a number of fronts.
"Are they developing a prayer life? Prayer is simply open communication with God," said Knecht, a lifelong Catholic and former seminary student whose German grandfather helped found one of the first Catholic parishes in western Pennsylvania. In addition to his role in the conversion program at Our Lady of Lourdes, Knecht agreed to be both godfather and confirmation sponsor for Hightower.
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When some of the potential converts are ready, they visit St. Ignatius Cathedral in Palm Beach Gardens for the Rite of Election, which Bishop Gerald Barbarito conducts at the beginning of Lent each year.
The converts are predictably awed to see for the first time hundreds of others like them, said Betty Gaster, who runs the convert program at St. Juliana.
"It just knocks their socks off," said Gaster, who has been guiding convert classes for 20 years and glows like her converts when she talks about the conversion process.
Knecht, too, finds the Rite of Election ceremony inspiring.
"When the bishop asks everyone, 'Are all of you ready to help these candidates?' It means we are all responsible for them, the whole faith community," Knecht said.
The final stage of the conversion process is intertwined with Easter Week.
On the Tuesday before Easter at a Mass attended by nearly all of the 131 priests and deacons in the diocese, Barbarito blessed the pure olive oil that is used to anoint the heads of those being baptized. Each priest took back a small glass container with enough oil, called chrism, to last his parish for the year. The new Catholics baptized Saturday are traditionally the first to receive the chrism.
Holy Saturday, the vigil of Easter, is steeped in anticipation, forming a bridge between the reflective season of Lent and the supreme joy of the Resurrection. At the vigil, parish priests light the tall Paschal candle, symbol of the liturgical year. Then parishioners, the new converts and lifetime Catholics as well, light smaller candles and file into a darkened church, carrying their light with them.
After Easter begins "mystagogy," a period when the new converts are establishing themselves as Catholics. Their sponsors make themselves available to continue the learning process.
"In the beginning, they're moved, they want to share that," said Knecht. "They want to continue in that spiritual high and share their feelings."
Many new Catholics then get more involved, reading scriptures at Mass, giving Holy Communion, ushering, singing in the choir and other church activities. One of Knecht's former students is now working with new converts.
"It becomes a way to live, not just something you do on Sunday," Knecht said.
John Hightower, never baptized, receives one benefit that the earlier-baptized Pyles do not. When he was baptized Saturday, all the sins of his life so far were wiped away. This small irony makes him chuckle.
He chose St. Augustine as his confirmation name. Born a pagan in the fourth century, Augustine was renowned in his youth for his loose living, but later converted, becoming one of the towering figures of the Catholic Church.
"I got 50 years of clean slate," said Hightower, putting seriousness aside for a moment. "Baptism cleans all that away."
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The Mass and the entire Catholic religion has ALL the answers....it is BEAUTIFUL.
We had an excellent Baptism at our parish. Wow, I love these adult converts and their new-gay enthusiasm!
Catholicism. Ancient. Ever-young.
I meant new-GUY enthusiasm. (Cheeks pinking up.)
Well, "gay," in the original sense of joyful, light-hearted, wholesome and merry!
She had the job of bearing the jar of chrism beside Monsignor as he confirmed the newly-baptised and those received into the church.
Several people mentioned to me afterwards that they noticed she looked at every confirmand and gave them a sweet smile (I was up in the choir loft and couldn't really see, but I did think she was smiling.) She's got an honest, freckled little Irish face, big grey eyes, and a 1000 watt smile.
She said afterwards, "They all looked so nervous, I wanted them to know they were welcome."
It's sad the number of English words we have had to abrogate from our daily lexicon as a result of the GLBT movement. There was a time when 'rainbow' meant was universally understood to mean a colorful arc across the sky, following a rain storm. Now they've taken on a much more nuanced meaning.
You stick with 'gay' in it's original sense. I understood you perfectly.
It would be more accurate to say "baptized by a formula that the Catholic church does not recognize,"
The correct form is what is important: it must include the word baptize and all three Persons of the Trinity.
Yes, it was stunning. The Palm Beach Post is, normaly, an execrable fish-wrap. Its religion columnist is a pro-abortion Episcopalian Minister who regularly trashes the Catholic Church
There is so much good news about the Catholic Church. Thanks for posting these links.
Wish I had Mr. H's email. He can easily argue from the Church's own teachings that it remains a legitimate option. The secular legal system hasn't yet reached the level that guarantees a life sentence really means life and truly protects the innocent. And the Church does teach that the state has the right to impose the penalty.
The RCIA process can be very fulfilling for the sponsors as well as the catechumens and candidates. Sometimes the RCIA team has to remind the sponsors to hold back and let the catechumens and candidates have the first crack at speaking up.
...Because Hightower worked 10 years as a police officer, he still struggles with the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment. "I'm still hammering that out," he said....
Siunevada, you are correct, I believe it's called "collective self defense", the right of a civil society to protect itself.
The misconception about Church teaching has been spread by misinformed liberals and the media referring to them. Even the USCCB recently declared one of its goals to be the abolition of the death penalty (so much less controversial that abortion!).. These miscreant bishops model themselves more on the values of European elites than Catholic doctrine.
I read one of Ratzinger's books where he addresses this issue in a side-line comment. If I can find it, I'll post in a few minutes. I sure would like to reassure Mr. Hightower with the Holy Father's own words!
More on capital punishment. See Catechism 2263-2267. Here's a pertinent quote (sorry I can't type the whole thing in here):
"Assuming the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." (2267)
ALSO, from "Salt of the Earth" when Peter Seewald asks Cardinal Ratzinger why the above passage is in the Catechism if the Church is so vehemently opposed to abortion, when both acts involve protecting life (pg 203 in the paperback version).
Ratzinger's response:
"In the death penalty, when it is legitimately applied, someone is punished who has been proved guilty of the most serious crimes and who also represents a threat to the peace of society. In other words, a guilty person is punished. In the case of abortion, on the other hand, the death penalty is inflicted on someone who is absolutely innocent. And those are two completely different things that you cannot compare one another."
I didn't know there were any catholics left in Palm Beach County.
And, of course, the Catechism states that it is the right and duty of legitimate public authority to defend the innocent. It is a secular matter and an individual layperson's political opinion is just as valid as a bishop's, the argument for or against must be made through reason.
That's why the American bishops are joining the moratorium crowd, they can never say it is inherently immoral.
Had to straighten my pastor out on that one. And I told him the best argument for the anti-penalty crowd, in my opinion, is all those cases in Illinois where men were convicted on coerced confessions and other false evidence. That would have been knowingly killing an innocent, an inherently immoral act. But I still think the death penalty is appropriate and should be applied when necessary.
Same sort of thing applies to the immigration debate. The public authorities responsible for the common good have the right to make immigration subject to 'juridical considerations'. And immigrants have the responsibility to respect the laws of the host country. My political opinion on what those 'juridical considerations' should be has the same standing and validity as any Cardinal's.
And ... Welcome home!
You explain that very well. Unfortunately, the non-Catholic public, or even some Catholics, don't understand that and when a news flash comes on TV that Cardinal Mahony is encouraging people to break the civic laws, it's touted as some "official" position of the Church.
The USCCB is an advisory body (maybe sorta similar to the AMA for doctors or the Rotary Club for business people). They do not have the authority to invent new doctrines or force their members to comply with a 'majority' viewpoint. But if we look at their stances on capital punishment, immigration, sex-ed, "justice", etc, apparently they are making up their own little version of Catholicism.
Where the difficulty comes in, is the obedience issue. Priests must obey their bishop. We must obey the bishops....but what about when they are wrong?
For example, many bishops supported Kerry for President, yet a Catholic cannot, under pain of moral sin, vote for a candidate who knowingly and deliberately promotes abortion.
Many bishops are forcing these immoral "talking about touching" programs on little children. Parents have been outraged across the country, some simply keeping their children out of the programs, others forming an alternative, Catholic-based curriculum (as in my own parish).
When our bishops become an obstruction to our faith, what is our individual responsibility as Catholics, as citizens? And what about the poor priests caught in the middle, like Fr. Altier?
You are clearly knowledgeable about these matters, would be interested in your thoughts.
All I know how to do is look at the Catechism. I know that the bishops' duties and authority are ordered to fulfillment of the pastoral function. And many temporal matters are outside the scope of that function since they are not inherently immoral or opposed to the faith. They are matters for prudential judgement and reasoned argument.
Of course, I can't imagine any reasoned argument that would persuade me that a phony like Kerry is acceptable to any Catholic, much less a bishop.
The bishops as individuals or in groups have a right to express their opinions on political matters and give it their best shot at persuading others to their point of view. But they are just citizens, like any one else in those matters. It hasn't been very productive thus far for the USCCB. As a matter of fact, it might be counter-productive for them to make any pronouncements. If the USCCB speaks to the issues of the day, it gets a skeptical hearing from many inside and outside of the Church.
As to the inappropriate content of some of these 'protection' programs, apparently the laity have the duty to raise a stink. In the a firm but polite manner, of course:
907 "In accord with the knowledge, competence, and preeminence which they possess, [lay people] have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and they have a right to make their opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard to the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward their pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons."
And as to Fr. Altier, apparently he himself feels his bishop has acceptable reasons for his action and he hasn't been subject to an unjust action.
Even John of the Cross stopped public work for a time on the orders of his bishop. Hopefully, it won't be as long for Fr. Altier as it was for St. John.
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