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CV NEWS FEED // The Diocese of Brooklyn’s newspaper, The Tablet, profiled four catechumens who will enter the Catholic Church this Easter, including a former drug addict, parents who are converting to support their 4-year-old son, and a woman whose husband’s witness led her to the faith.
Joann Roa, the director of faith formation for the Diocese of Brooklyn, told CatholicVote in a phone call that this year 693 catechumens in the diocese will join the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil. The training for Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) takes two years; every other year, the diocese sees a slight increase in the number of converts, she said.
The Tablet told the story of Chris Pena, a 31-year-old Uber driver who immigrated from the Dominican Republic to the United States with his father and two sisters when he was 16. He said that as a child, even though he was never baptized, his family attended both Evangelical services and Roman Catholic Masses in the Dominican Republic.
“They have a strong faith,” he recalled.
After he immigrated, he stopped focusing on religion and turned to drugs, such as cocaine, “from meeting the wrong people.”
Last year, he decided to turn his life to God and start going to church. A friend invited him to St. Rita’s in Brooklyn, where he will be baptized at the Easter Vigil. He stated that he sees baptism as an opportunity for him to start over.
“I started to feel different, so now I’m here, and I want to be a part of the community,” he said. “I want to follow Jesus, and now I see life in a different aspect.”
Two of the other catechumens are a married couple: Jazmin and Kenwyn Ramroop. They were inspired to convert for their son Karter’s sake after his positive experience at a Catholic school.
Jazmin was raised Pentecostal. Kenwyn grew up in a Catholic family in Trinidad, but he was never baptized. They will receive baptism, holy Eucharist, and confirmation at St. Mark’s Church in Brooklyn.
Before having Karter in 2020, the couple had struggled to conceive and lost a baby when Jazmin was six months pregnant. Jazmin said the loss led them to take a step back and start praying again.
They were further inspired in their faith journey after Karter entered St. Mark Catholic Academy at age 3. He had some speech delays, and the school was the first they visited where he felt comfortable.
“The reason why my husband and I decided to go through a journey together to become Catholic was really because of our son, Karter,” Jazmin said. “This school has given us the opportunity and the encouragement to want to be there for our son in a spiritual way, as well.”
She said that by becoming Catholics, she and Kenwyn are more prepared to accompany Karter in his faith.
“We can talk about the Bible. We can talk about the Lord. We can continue on and go through that Catholic journey together,” she said. “And I’m just excited for it.”
The final catechumen highlighted by The Tablet, Amanda Dennison, was also raised Pentecostal. She said that Catholic friends inspired her conversion when they invited her to sacraments at their parishes.
She said that as a Pentecostal, she had experienced faith, but it was as if pieces were missing from a puzzle.
“Once I started to understand the Catholic faith, I was able to take the puzzles that I had with the missing pieces and use the knowledge that I had from Catholicism to fit in all those missing pieces,” she said.
She will receive the Sacraments of Initiation at Blessed Sacrament Church in Jackson Heights. She and her husband, who were married civilly, will have a church wedding there the week after Easter to celebrate their sacramental marriage. Her husband, Jonathan Guaman, is a lifelong Catholic and her high school sweetheart. She said that he has been a pillar of her support in her preparation for the sacraments.
“I can’t imagine, to be honest, doing this without him,” she said. “He’s really been there for me through everything, supporting me, talking me through things, encouraging me, praying for me,” she said. “I’m so grateful to God that he put him in my life because I feel like God really knew who I needed and he matched us up in that way.”
Now, she said, they plan to put God at the center of their marriage.
