REGO PARK — As Bishop Robert Brennan stood at the entrance of Resurrection Ascension Church in Rego Park shaking hands and greeting people entering the church for the Rite of Election service on Sunday, Feb. 18, the symbolism was unmistakable. He was welcoming people into the church just as he will be welcoming the newly baptized into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil next month.
The Rite of Election service, a time-honored tradition that takes place on the first Sunday of Lent, signifies the fact that people who are to be baptized into the faith at the Easter Vigil have officially been chosen, or elected, by the Church. These people, known as catechumens, are people who have never been baptized before in any religion and are making a conscious decision to join the Catholic faith.
The Easter Vigil this year will take place at parishes on Holy Saturday, March 30, after sunset.
The Rite of Election also signals the official change in status for the participants who go from being catechumens to being elected.
According to the Office of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis, there were 447 catechumens this year in the Diocese of Brooklyn — 331 adults and 116 children.
The Call to Continuing Conversion will be this weekend with and estimated 206 candidates taking their sacraments.
There were two separate Rite of Election services on Sunday — one for Queens parishes at 3 p.m. and the other for their Brooklyn brethren at 5 p.m. — with both services taking place at Resurrection Ascension Church. Bishop Brennan presided over both.
The two services had a distinctly international flavor, which was fitting given that the Diocese of Brooklyn is known as the Diocese of Immigrants. For example, the readings were delivered in three languages — English, Spanish and Mandarin.
“Here at Resurrection Ascension, we welcome people from all over Brooklyn and Queens, really from all over the world,” Bishop Brennan told The Tablet. “My impression as I stood and looked out at everyone was, this is Brooklyn and Queens. But more to the point, this is the Catholic Church! We are a church of immigrants but we are a global church united all around the world in our faith in Jesus Christ.”
In his homily, Bishop Brennan spoke about the diversity of the diocese as evidenced by the three languages in the readings and joked that if the service were to truly reflect the international flavor of Brooklyn and Queens, “we would have to have eight or nine readings.”
The catechumens expressed excitement, and relief, at having come this far in their journeys of faith and at having completed their faith formation studies in preparation for baptism.
“I’m almost at the finish line,” said Elojde Berliku, an Albanian-American who attends Mass at the Basilica of Regina Pacis in Dyker Heights. “I really feel that the stars are just aligning. I felt like God was calling me to finally be able to join this beautiful community.”
Berliku, a teacher, loves the diversity of Regina Pacis. “It’s really beautiful. There’s so many different types of people that are there,” she added.
For Alvin Chung, a cook in a sushi restaurant who came to the U.S. from his native China last year, joining the Catholic faith is a dream come true.
He first expressed an interest in becoming Catholic back in China in 2016, because of his family and friends who had faith. When he came to the U.S., he decided to fully embrace the religion.
He found the Basilica of Regina Pacis, started attending Mass there and found the parishioners and priests to be warm and welcoming. “They are so kind. I feel comfortable,” he said through an interpreter.
“God is a true God,” he added, and his goal from this point on is “to know God and to help others know him.”
The highlight of the service came when Joann Roa, director of Adult Faith Formation for the diocese called each parish’s group of catechumens up to the altar, where Bishop Brennan asked them if they intended to live according to the Catholic faith. They responded yes in unison.
Roa then asked the sponsors of the catechumens to approach the altar and present their Book of Elected — the official book containing the names of the people to be baptized — to Bishop Brennan for his inspection.
Roa called the Rite of Election “a wonderful liturgical celebration because we welcome everyone from everywhere.”
That diversity, she said, “really allows us to have the richness of our faith, that multicultural aspect of our faith and to say to those here, ‘We welcome you. We love you, and we can’t wait to live this faith with you.’”
Father Joseph Gibino, vicar for evangelization and catechesis, said the diversity of the diocese is extraordinary. “We here in Brooklyn and Queens are the universal church. Chinese, Spanish and English all blend together. And it’s a beautiful optic when we see everyone worshiping together,” he explained.
At the Easter Vigil, the Catholic Church will also welcome into the faith newcomers known as candidates — people who had previously been baptized into other Christian denominations and who now wish to become Catholic.