By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Truly celebrating Easter means allowing Jesus to triumph over personal fears and give life to hope, creativity and care for others, Pope Francis said.

Easter is “an invitation to break out of our routines and to renew our lives, our decisions and our existence,” the pope said during the Easter Vigil March 31 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Do we want to share in this message of life,” he asked in his homily, “or do we prefer simply to continue standing speechless before events as they happen?”

During the liturgy, Pope Francis baptized eight adults, who were between the ages of 28 and 52. The Vatican said Nathan Potter, who was born in 1988 and comes from the United States, was one of the eight. Four of the other catechumens were from Italy and one each came from Albania, Peru and Nigeria.

The Nigerian, 31-year-old John Ogah, became a hero last year in Centocelle, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome. Ogah, who had been begging outside a grocery store, stopped a machete-wielding thief who had just robbed the store. Once the police arrived, Ogah left because he did not have legal permission to be in Italy.

Police tracked Ogah down to thank him and ended up helping him get his Italian residency permit. Capt. Nunzio Carbone, the officer in charge, was Ogah’s godfather and sponsor at the papal liturgy.

Pope Francis also confirmed the eight and give them their first Communion during the Mass.

The Mass, on a very rainy night, began in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica with the blessing of the fire and of the Easter candle. With most of the lights in the basilica turned off, Pope Francis and the concelebrating cardinals, bishops and priests processed in darkness toward the altar, stopping first to light the pope’s candle and then those of the concelebrants and faithful.

“We began this celebration outside, plunged in the darkness of the night and the cold,” the pope said in his homily. “We felt an oppressive silence at the death of the Lord, a silence with which each of us can identify, a silence that penetrates to the depths of the heart of every disciple, who stands wordless before the cross.”

Transitioning from the Good Friday commemoration of Jesus’ death and commenting on the silence of Holy Saturday, the pope spoke of the hours when Jesus’ followers are left speechless in pain at His death, but also speechless at the injustice of His condemnation and at their own cowardice in the face of the lies and false testimony He endured.

“It is the silent night of the disciples who remained numb, paralyzed and uncertain of what to do amid so many painful and disheartening situations,” the pope said. “It is also that of today’s disciples, speechless in the face of situations we cannot control, that make us feel and, even worse, believe that nothing can be done to reverse all the injustices that our brothers and sisters are experiencing in their flesh.”

But in the midst of silence, he said, the stone is rolled away from Jesus’ tomb and there comes “the greatest message that history has ever heard: ‘He is not here, for He has been raised.’”

Jesus’ empty tomb should fill Christians with trust in God and should assure them that God’s light “can shine in the least expected and most hidden corners of our lives.”

“‘He is not here … He is risen!’ This is the message that sustains our hope and turns it into concrete gestures of charity,” the pope said. It is a call to revive faith, broaden one’s horizons and know that no one walks alone.

“To celebrate Easter is to believe once more that God constantly breaks into our personal histories, challenging our conventions, those fixed ways of thinking and acting that end up paralyzing us,” he said.

ABOVE: Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis greets Dusty, back left, Addison, Brooklyn and Julie Clements during the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 18. At far right is Dalton Renteria, Julie’s son and Dusty’s stepson. All five are catechumens from Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul. (Dave Hrbacek/CNS, via The Catholic Spirit)

By Dave Hrbacek
Catholic News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — When Dalton Renteria visited the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul for the first time Feb. 18, he was struck by the large crucifix behind the altar.

“We went around the back; I just looked at the backside of it, and it was very, very cool to look at,” said the 18-year-old, who asked his family to go with him for a closer look.

“The light was hitting it perfectly because it wasn’t shining over the cross, but it was just perfectly behind,” he said. “So it looked like the cross was in the middle of the light, and it was very symbolic.”

Dalton, who didn’t grow up with a crucifix in his home, is a catechumen in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program at Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul. He is joining the church with his mother, stepfather and twin sisters March 31 during the Easter Vigil.

The cathedral experience had a powerful impact on him, and it deepened his joy and excitement for the completion of his journey into the Catholic Church. His Feb. 18 visit was for the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion, part of the RCIA process, during which the family was presented to Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Dalton had to fly in for the rite; he lives with his father in Washington state. His mother and stepfather, Julie and Dusty Clements, and his twin sisters, Addison and Brooklyn, moved from Idaho to St. Paul last summer. Dalton, who had lived with them, decided to stay out west with his dad.

The family’s move to Minnesota played a providential role in the family’s decision to become Catholic. Dusty, 41, did not regularly attend church growing up, while Julie, 40, was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but quit practicing the faith by the time she was in college in the late 1990s. However, while living in Idaho, where Dusty was working at Boise State University, the couple had decided to try to find a church.

“We didn’t know what direction we were going; we just knew we wanted to have that (church) in our lives,” Julie told The Catholic Spirit, the archdiocesan newspaper. “We both felt like it was good — good for the kids, good for our family.”

They were still looking when Dusty took a job in fundraising for the University of Minnesota.

Before the move, he told a Minnesota acquaintance he was looking for a school for his first-grade girls and a church community to join. That acquaintance recommended Nativity for both. That prompted Julie to call Nativity of Our Lord Catholic School Principal Kate Wollan just a few weeks before the start of the school year.

An hourlong phone call with Wollan left her anxious to enroll the girls there. After the move, the school served as a natural conduit to bring the faith into their home.

“The kids have been like sponges with everything, like learning about the faith and Jesus,” said Julie, who works in sales. “Addison would start reciting the Lord’s Prayer. They don’t say that in the Mormon Church. Growing up, we never said the Lord’s Prayer. That’s a pretty big prayer for a 6-year-old to come home and recite.”

Julie then took her daughters to a Saturday evening Mass at Nativity in early September. It was a first for her. “I loved it. I walked into Nativity, and I was just in awe.”

Her daughters, likewise, were captivated by the experience, and Julie and Dusty decided their family would pursue RCIA. Shortly after that, they called Dalton and talked to him about joining the Church with them. He quickly agreed, as he had been attending Mass with his Catholic girlfriend before moving from Idaho to Washington.

Nativity RCIA Director Randy Mueller has had a few families join the Catholic Church together, but this one is the largest.

“It’s beautiful to see because they’re excited to find a church community that they can come to as a family,” he said. “They really feel like it’s making a difference in their lives. It’s really bringing them together as a family.”

“I am excited,” Julie said, noting that the other family members are, too. “It’s a big step for all of us.”

The only thing missing will be first Communion for the girls. Dusty and Julie decided Addison and Brooklyn would wait until next year when they are in second grade, so that they can receive the sacrament with their classmates.

That hasn’t dulled the twins’ enthusiasm. “(I’m) really excited because we get to be in God’s family,” Brooklyn said.

Addison added: “I’m so excited I could blow up.”

As Dusty has studied the faith and prepared for the Easter Vigil, he’s already noticed a difference in his life.

“It’s been a huge help to us,” he said. “For me, (in) moments at work or otherwise, you can reflect on things you’re learning through the faith. That helps carry you through. … I think it’s better prepared us for what’s ahead.”

Dave Hrbacek is on the staff of THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

ABOVE: Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis prepares to make the sign of the cross with sacred chrism oil on the forehead of Marguerite Engle during a March 4 Mass at the Indiana Women’s Prison chapel. Engle and Opal Williams, third from left, received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist during the Mass. (John Shaughnessy/CNS, via “The Criterion”)

By John Shaughnessy
Catholic News Service

INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — There are times when nearly everyone seeks redemption for a mistake or a moment of darkness, times that can help find a way to return to the grace of God.

For Opal Williams and Marguerite Engle, a significant step in that journey occurred the evening of March 4 in the chapel of the Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis.

There, Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson baptized and confirmed the two inmates and later gave them their first Communion as he celebrated Mass and their new life in Christ.

Archbishop Thompson focused on that new life during his homily. He shared with the two women and their fellow inmates the message that Pope Francis once delivered during a visit with prisoners in Bolivia.

“When Jesus becomes part of our lives, we can no longer remain imprisoned by our past,” he said, quoting the pope. “Instead, we begin to look to the present, and we see it differently, with a different kind of hope. We begin to see ourselves and our lives in a different light. We are no longer stuck in the past, but capable of shedding tears and finding in them the strength to make a new start.”

Turning to Williams and Engle, Archbishop Thompson told them, “So that’s what Lent is all about: the strength to make a new start. It’s a new beginning, celebrating our identity in Christ as God’s children, as God’s family.

“And we celebrate that today in a special way as you are received into the family of the Catholic Church, walking in this new light, this new hope, this new joy of putting on Christ and knowing Christ.”

For both women, their new beginning was marked with emotion, from flashing glowing smiles to wiping away tears of joy, all with the belief that they had finally found a home in the Church that God had always intended for them.

“This means a lot to me,” Williams said before Mass. “I was adopted, but my biological grandmother was Catholic, and I remember going to church with her. I feel in my heart that I’ve been meant to be Catholic, and I’m following in her footsteps. I feel like this is what God and her really wanted me to do.”

Engle shared a similar conviction of being at home in the Church.

“I’ve always turned to the Catholic Church when there was trouble in my life and I needed answers,” she said. “I’ve fasted and prayed. I wanted to learn as much as I could before I made a decision to become part of the Church.

“Believing in God and Jesus Christ brings me closer to heaven. It’s my salvation. It means I’ll be saved. It means I’ll be released from everything I’ve experienced so far. I have forgiveness for my sins. I will have a future.”

Such a journey toward the future comes with the help of Indianapolis-area Catholics who volunteer in prison ministry weekly at the women’s facility.

Ann Tully of St. Matthew the Apostle Parish served as Engle’s sponsor, while Andrea Wolsifer of St. Anthony Parish was Williams’ sponsor.

“When they learned they were able to come into the Church, they were overjoyed,” Tully told The Criterion, newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese. “They’ve been working hard and studying hard. It’s an amazing journey for them. Everything is new and beautiful to them. They really have embraced the Catholic tradition and faith.”

At times during the evening, the smiles of Engle and Williams were matched by Wolsifer, who led the two women through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults to enter the Church.

“This means everything to them,” Wolsifer said. “They’ve been wanting to come into the Church since they started RCIA. And they’re interested in ongoing learning about the Catholic faith.”

After the Mass, Archbishop Thompson reflected on the joy and the faith of Engle and Williams he witnessed during the rituals and reception of the sacraments.

“The fact that these two ladies want to be received into the Church tonight shows the faith is alive here,” he said. “Their own journey, their own challenges — whatever things in their life have caused them to be here — they have not lost faith, they have not lost their sense of being created in the image of God and being loved by God.”

The archbishop spent considerable time after Mass answering questions from other inmates. He also spoke with them informally in groups and individually, consoling and blessing one woman who shared a painful reality with him.

“These are the ones that Pope Francis reminds us are on the margins, on the peripheries, that society tends to want to brush aside or forget,” said the archbishop, who has made personal visits and prison ministry a priority during his time in Indiana. “We have to remember that Christ is present here, and remember the goodness and dignity of every person.”

John Shaughnessy is assistant editor of THE CRITERION, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.