Detroit — Thousands of adults and older children around the United States will enter the Catholic Church this Easter, including 1,296 who will come into full communion as Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Each year, dioceses and archdiocese in the United States welcome new members through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) — a version of which also is offered for children who are ready to receive adult baptism.
The new members include catechumens — known during the Lenten season as “the elect” — and candidates. Catechumens are those being baptized Christian for the first time. Candidates are already baptized as Christian, but are entering the Catholic Church. Some candidates already are Catholic but are being accepted more fully into the Church through the sacraments of confirmation and the Eucharist.
Most parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit are welcoming new members into their faith communities.
Across the country, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reports a great diversity in those who are becoming Catholic this Easter.
In a press release issued last week, the conference detailed the some of the new entrants — a former abortion clinic administrator, a young adult raised in communist Cuba and a marine preparing for deployment among them.
Among others, the release describes Ahdija Cheumbike Baker, the daughter of a Detroit man and a Tanzanian woman who was raised Muslim. She is one of 282 entering the Catholic Church in New Orleans this year.
Baker said she struggled with her beliefs about God and “felt at home and accepted” when she visited St. Peter Claver Church in New Orleans.
“They have become my family,” she said in the release.
While the Catholic Church around the world is still primarily maintained by Catholics who have their children baptized, certainly those converting to Catholicism at Easter give Catholic parishes across the country a boost in membership and enthusiasm.
Stories vary as to why new members come to Church. Often, it’s because they’re marrying a Catholic. Not uncommonly, though, some Catholics feel called to the Church through her truths and her people.
