CV NEWS FEED // Over six hundred catechumens in the Archdiocese of Miami will be baptized at the Easter Vigil, and many of the young catechumens are expressing “genuine excitement” about joining the Catholic Church.
According to the archdiocese’s news page, 300 catechumens in the archdiocese attended a Rite of Election ceremony, and on February 18, another 315 catechumens attended a second ceremony. More than 600 catechumens total signed the Book of the Elect at the ceremonies, “signifying their upcoming communion with the Church,” wrote Emily Mangiaracina on the news page.
At the archdiocese’s Right of Election ceremonies, “one might be struck by the many young people present,” Mangiaracina wrote. “But any guess that these youths are simply ‘going through the motions’ at the urging of their parents would be wrong.”
“Rather, the common reaction of youths to their upcoming baptism into the Catholic Church was genuine excitement,” Mangiaracina continued.
Melanic Rodriguez, a senior in high school, shared that “her conversion began on a spiritual retreat called Encounter, during which she believes she first ‘really saw God.’”
“I can definitely say I felt his love and that he wanted me to take this step for my life,” Rodriguez told the archdiocese news site.
When Rodriguez later applied as a peer minister at the Encounter retreat, she learned that a prerequisite was to be a Catholic. “The retreat coordinator who interviewed her asked her if she wanted to convert — not merely to serve on the retreat, but because of an authentic desire to be Catholic,” Mangiaracina wrote.
“With my whole heart I said yes,” Rodriguez said. “[I am] very excited, very blessed, and appreciative to be able to start this new path, especially holding [God’s] hand… Hopefully I’ll be able to keep discerning what he wants from me, and complete my vocation — whatever he’s calling me to do, to be a disciple to him.”
Sophia Lorena Vargas, 14, also is preparing to enter the Church. The Catholic school she attends, Our Lady of Guadalupe, has had a large role in bringing her to the Catholic Faith. Mangiaracina wrote that Vargas learned at the school “that faith is not a matter of scientific understanding, but rather an act of the will.”
Vargas said that she is “counting the days” to enter the Church. “I can’t wait,” she said. “I’m actually really excited.”
She noted that she is especially eager to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. “I just hope that with every bump on the road that I never lose my faith in him — because he has never lost his faith in me, and look at me now,” Vargas added.
Ten-year old Odette Borges is also among the catechumens who attended the Rite of Election, and expressed her enthusiasm for the upcoming Easter Vigil.
“I feel really excited,” Borges told the archdiocese news site. “When I’m baptized, it’s going to be permanent — for the rest of my life.”
Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said at the Rite of Election ceremony, “The Church here in South Florida is very much alive, and we thank God for that.”
At the Easter Vigil, the catechumens “will be asked to renounce Satan and all his works and all his empty promises,” Wenski said. After this, the catechumens will make a profession of faith.
“That profession of faith based on the Apostles’ Creed is our ‘yes’ to God,” Wenski said.
It is our pledge that — in spite of whatever trials and tribulations we may face — we will walk through this life as a friend of God, as a friend of Jesus and in the company of his friends, that is his Catholic Church.
