Hundreds of people came to St. Patrick’s Church, Bay Ridge on Sunday, March 6, to take part in the Rite of Election — a prayer service in which those who are enrolled in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the Diocese of Brooklyn took an important step toward becoming full members of the Catholic Church.
The faint rays of light faded at sundown Saturday from the stained-glass windows at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph. But darkness did not hold.
Jasmine Zuniga is one of the hundreds of people, called catechumens, who are enrolled in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the Diocese of Brooklyn and have been busy studying in their local parishes to be baptized into the Catholic Church. On Feb. 21, Jasmine and her fellow catechumens took part in the Rite of Election.
Abbey Forbes, the 18-year-old winner of the junior girls doubles championship at Wimbledon, has kept an inspirational book in her tennis bag at recent competitions and for all seven Wimbledon matches.
After joyously entering the Church at the Easter Vigil, the question on the minds of many newly initiated Catholics is: What comes next?
In the chapel of the Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis, two inmates celebrated their new life in Christ as they were baptized, confirmed and received first Communion March 4.
As a young boy I had some very powerful statements I could use under many different circumstances. One of the most powerful was, “Do-over.”
Eleven undergraduate students at St. John’s University, Jamaica, will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church, April 8, in a special campus-based liturgical ceremony at St. Thomas More Church celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros.
Split across three different sites in Brooklyn and Queens, more than 600 people shook hands with Brooklyn bishops Feb. 25 as a sign of welcome to the Catholic Church. Stretching from the Flatlands to Douglaston, the candidates seeking to update their union with the Church attended the Rite of Calling the Candidates to Continuing Conversion.
Never baptized in any Christian tradition, these catechumens – as they are called – are enrolled in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), and will enter the Church at the Easter Vigil, March 31, in their home parishes.
