Thousands take final steps toward joining church

Published: 2006-03-14

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Across the United States this Lent tens of thousands of prospective Catholics began the final phases of joining the church, a process that will culminate with the sacraments of Christian initiation at the Easter Vigil. For catechumens, people not yet baptized, the final part of the journey began with a Rite of Election on or near the first Sunday of Lent. For candidates, who are already baptized Christians, the start of Lent meant participating in a Call to Continuing Conversion. Catechumens will receive baptism, confirmation and first Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Candidates will enter full communion with the church by receiving confirmation and first Eucharist. In the Washington Archdiocese 1,133 catechumens and candidates participated in Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion services. Across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va., there were 697. Among other dioceses, there were 560 in Little Rock, Ark.; more than 500 in Nashville, Tenn.; 264 in Albany, N.Y.; 269 in Hartford, Conn.; and 325 in Wilmington, Del. When the bishops' national evangelization office did a nationwide survey two years ago, it found that about 150,000 people joined the church that year through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. The rite, a catechetical-sacramental program, reaches its peak in the Lenten final steps and Easter initiation into the church.

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