A show of faith
Catholic Church to welcome new members in inspirational initiation ceremony this weekend
Friar Dan Quackenbush of the Franciscan Church of St. Bonaventure often thinks, “Jesus is the best kept secret in town.”
But it seems the secret is getting out to some, at least. On Saturday, Roman Catholic parishes worldwide will welcome their newest members during Easter Vigil mass, which is the first celebration of Easter, the most important holiday of the faith marking the resurrection of Jesus.
After a year of participating in a course called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), newcomers will receive the sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. The RCIA attracts a range of people, including converts from other religions and baptized Catholics who have drifted away from the Church but want to return.
While their initiation is a pivotal step in their spiritual journey, it also inspires others in the parish, says Friar Dan.
“Launching these newly initiated people into the community is something that should give us life,” he says. “It gives us a fresh pulse and it calls us to be better, more worthy of the Lord.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted: goodness, truth and love. It started me on a journey and I’ve never looked back.”
CORRINE EVANOFF ON HER SEARCH FOR FAITH AND FINDING GOD
The Archdiocese of Toronto doesn’t yet have figures for this year, but in 2013, there were 163 parishes running an RCIA program, with 2,478 candidates. According to the archdiocese, that is a slight increase over previous years, which have remained steady.
Friar Dan wouldn’t be surprised if numbers rise, given the enormous popularity of Pope Francis, dubbed the Pope Francis Effect.
“I’ve never seen more positive press surrounding a pope than I’ve seen with Francis,” he says. “There’s a wonderful freshness and spontaneity and a real compassion that flows out of everything he does. He proclaims the essence of the Gospel in a concrete, practical and warmly compassionate way.”
At St. Bonaventure, there are about 15 candidates who will be initiated fully on Saturday. The Star spoke with some of them about their spiritual journeys. Kurtis Dinner
While on a trip to Boston, walking through Little Italy, 16-year-old Kurtis Dinner spotted an unusual garden statue: a man clothed in a habit cinched by a knotted cord, with birds perched atop his shoulders and animals at his feet. “Who is that?” he asked. “St. Francis of Assisi,” replied his grandmother, referring to the patron saint of ecology.
Reflecting on that memory, Dinner chuckles.
“It was God working in the background,” says Dinner, who’s now 18 and a first-year University of Toronto student majoring in history and philosophy.
After that trip, God and religion moved into the foreground of his life.
In his Grade 12 history class Dinner learned about Christianity and was hooked.
He started reading about the lives of saints. The one story that resonated with him was of St. Francis, who was born into a wealthy family but gave up a pleasure-filled life to embrace poverty and humility and devote himself to God.
“His life just seemed so remarkable and interesting,” recalls Dinner, who began looking up Franciscan parishes in his neighbourhood.
Although his parents are Christian, Dinner was never raised with religion because the couple wanted to let their son choose his own spiritual path.
On a chilly Saturday in March 2013, he was ready to choose. “It’s like God was calling me into a relationship with him,” he recalls.
He hopped on a bus for St. Bonaventure. When he stepped inside — his first time in a church — a sense of peacefulness washed over him. Since then, Dinner has been a regular at mass.
Coincidentally, he signed up for the RCIA program around the time Pope Francis was inaugurated.
“The fact that he took the name after St. Francis was pretty cool. It reaffirmed everything.” Romi Radoslavova
Growing up in communist era Bulgaria, religion never played a role in Romi Radoslavova’s life.
Her parents, although baptized in the Orthodox Church, were atheists. And, she learned at an early age that it was wisest not to pursue any faith.
“It was not officially forbidden but, de facto, people couldn’t (practise religion),” recalls Radoslavova, who works for an insurance company.
“It would damage their social and political position if they were seen going to church.”
So she stayed away — for decades. It wasn’t until her mother, dying of cancer, questioned her own lack of faith that Radoslavova also began thinking about it. “She herself realized that she needed some spiritual support and I started thinking about all of this: the need for faith,” she says, adding her mother’s death in 1998 fuelled her contemplation. “I realized that without faith I felt desperate and without hope. And I needed faith to give a sense to my life, to my existence.” A friend of hers, whose faith and devotion are “inspiring,” encouraged her to explore Roman Catholicism. Radoslavova embraced it. “I found a personal comfort,” she says of her spiritual journey.
“It’s difficult to put into words because it’s been very personal and very intimate.” Kelvin McGuigan As a boy, Kelvin McGuigan went to church — a lot. Because his father is Catholic and his mother is Protestant, he alternated between both churches. But he was never baptized. His father was a staunch Catholic from Northern Ireland and knew the turmoil that can result from strong religious convictions. So his parents de- cided to let their children make their own decisions about faith. It didn’t take long for McGuigan to decide. “I always liked the rituals, the traditions, the history of the Catholic Church and always thought I should go down the road of getting baptized,” recalls the 44-year-old high school teacher. As a teen he wanted to be baptized, it was the first sacrament of initiation into the Church. But in the ensuing years he moved around a lot for school and work, and never established a strong connection with any church. Five years ago, when he and his then-partner baptized their baby son, Patrick, McGuigan resolved that it was time that he too embark on the “baptismal journey.” “I realized that I wouldn’t want (Patrick) to look upon me as any type of hypocrite,” recalls McGuigan. “It’s important for parents and adults to model behaviours and if I want to have some type of religious foundation in my family it’s important that I’m not a hypocrite about it.” But it wasn’t until Monique Pillai came into McGuigan’s life three years ago that he began that journey. Pillai had been baptized and raised Catholic but never received any other sacraments. The couple decided to start the RCIA program together, and shortly after tied the knot in a civil ceremony. On Saturday, he will be baptized, with his wife stepping in as godpar- ent. Then both will receive the other two sacraments. They hope to celebrate another sacrament, later this year: marriage in the Catholic Church.
Reflecting on his decades-long journey, McGuigan remarks, “It’s sort of surreal because it’s been such a long time in the making.”
“Monique and I doing this together makes this more powerful. As a couple it brings us closer together and closer with God.” Corrine Evanoff
By the time she hit her late 30s, Corrine Evanoff realized “there’s got to be more to life.”
She was bouncing between jobs without any direction, had no deep and meaningful friendships and wasn’t in a relationship.
“I just seemed to be lost,” she recalls, adding she tried to fill the “emptiness inside” with physical fitness, self-help books, drugs and alcohol.
“I just kept coming up emptyhanded,” recalls the 48 year-old entertainment production manager. “I was avoiding the spiritual path and God. And the incredible thing is the one thing I was avoiding was the one thing I was starving for.”
When she realized she was looking for happiness in the wrong places, Evanoff broached the subject with a friend.
“Do you have God in your life?” he asked. Evanoff struggled to reply.
Her parents had baptized her older siblings in the Protestant church, but not her. She had never been raised in a religious home and simply didn’t believe in a god. But her friend’s questions struck a chord.
He continued: “If God is goodness, God is truth and God is love, doesn’t it make sense that if you seek goodness, truth and love you will find God.”
“I was starving for that,” she recalls. “That’s exactly what I wanted: goodness, truth and love. It started me on a journey and I’ve never looked back.”
At 37, she started attending church, participating in spiritual groups and reading the Bible. But it wasn’t until last year, when she spoke with Friar Dan about a sermon he had made, that they got to talking about RCIA.
“(The past year) has been wonderful,” she says. “I just feel like my relationship with God is stronger and deepening. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”