Sarah Adornato’s heart was aflame as she thought about walking into a darkened St. Augustine Church in Andover holding a candle last night.
The 15-year-old high school freshman knew that by the end of the two-hour service, she would be a full-fledged Roman Catholic.
Sarah, 15, and her brother, Dean, 11, and two others were to be baptized, receive their First Communion and be confirmed all in one night during the Easter vigil at the Andover church.
They were among 500 people to be welcomed into the Catholic faith at Massachusetts churches in the Archdiocese of Boston. Another 415 were to be received into the church last night in the Diocese of Manchester, N.H.
Many of the new church members are married to Catholics or were drawn to Catholicism by friends. Others were baptized into the church as infants but were not raised as Catholics and never received First Communion. Some are the children of mixed marriages raised in another faith.
The Adornato children were raised as Protestants, though their father, Joe, is Catholic. They later began attending church with him but were unable to take Communion until last night.
“When I saw my family members and friends go up for Communion,” Sarah Adornato said, “I felt like the kid who was not picked for the team.”
Those welcomed into the church during the Easter vigil studied the faith through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and the Rite of Christian Initiation for Children.
The rite is an ancient process reintroduced after Vatican II and now being actively promoted by churches faced with declining attendance. Parishes advertised the program in their weekly bulletins. Clergy and lay people preached about the process from the pulpit.
Felix Duran, director of religious education at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Lawrence, said the message has reached adults who attended church but had not been baptized.
“They thought it was only for children,” Duran said. “It opened the doors to them, and unless they saw the doors of the church open, they were not going to come in.”
St. Mary’s was set to welcome 60 into the faith last night.
More than 150,000 people are entering the Catholic church this year in the United States, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said in February, at the start of the process that culminated last night.
That is almost double the number last year. In 2006, 80,817 adults nationwide were baptized as Catholics, up from 73,684 the year before, according to the Official Catholic Directory.
The Rev. John Michalowski, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Salem, N.H., is not surprised by the numbers.
“This has to do with God’s grace, and how God has touched them,” he said. “People feel a sense of call to holiness and they’re responding.”
A mother and her two sons were among the five who were to receive the sacraments for the first time at St. Joseph Church last night.
Those welcomed into the Catholic faith at local churches ranged in age from 7 to 70-plus.
At Mary Queen of Peace in Salem, N.H., one man in his 70s was moved to join the church after his Catholic wife died and the parish hosted a mercy meal for his family after her funeral.
“He felt this was such a welcoming gesture, he wanted to come to the church for his children and grandchildren,” said Sister Rachel Jette, pastoral minister at Mary Queen of Peace.
For Glenn Driscoll, 38, of Haverhill, who was raised as a Methodist, the turning point came when his father, who was raised as a Catholic but converted to Methodism after marriage, returned to the church while battling cancer.
“I thought it was a very powerful statement because he had not attended Mass for 30 years and here he was going back to his roots,” Driscoll said. “It solidified my decision to join.”
Driscoll’s wife of 12 years, Rebecca, is a Catholic. Driscoll began thinking about joining her church when their son, Joshua, 9, asked uncomfortable questions about why he didn’t take Communion. The Driscolls also have a daughter, Emily, 6.
Ryan Perrault, 19, a Merrimack College sophomore from Biddeford, Maine, was baptized a Catholic but did not practice the faith growing up.
He decided to receive the sacraments after entering Merrimack. “I felt at home and I wanted to feel part of the family,” he said.
The clergy sex abuse scandal did not dissuade him “I knew full well what was going on, but for one bad person, there are five people to help you,” Perrault said.
Jim Massi, 42, of Salem, N.H., also was baptized a Catholic but never received First Communion. “There was a void in my life,” said Massi, who attends Our Lady of Good Counsel in Methuen.
Massi said staying seated in the pew while his 10-year-old son rose to receive Communion made him restless. “I didn’t feel included; that’s another reason why I wanted to do it,” he said.
Family also motivated Peter Richardson of Haverhill to become a Catholic in the year 2000. Richardson, who now teaches other candidates at All Saints Church in Haverhill, had been attending church with his wife and children for 10 years.
“It felt good having the whole family practicing together,” Richardson said. “For so long, I felt there was something missing and I was now part of it.”
The Easter vigil service is special not only for participants but also for teachers like Richardson.
“I always cry because they’re so happy and they’ve worked so hard,” said Mary Alice Rock of St. Michael Parish in North Andover.
Deacon Bob Gaudreau of Sacred Hearts in Bradford also feels joy.
“I thick we’re beginning to turn a corner,” he said. “People are coming in because they are thirsty and hungry. When they see what is happening in the world, they want a better way.”
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Sarah Adoranato of Andover stands with her godmother Rose Wettmore of Andover as she is baptized by Father George Morgan during the Easter Vigil service at St. Augustine Church in Andover.Deborah Hammond/Staff Photo(Click for larger image)
