
Anjanette Carr is anointed with oil at St. Thomas More, the Jesuit parish of the Twin Cities.
Dioceses across the Midwest Province and the country are seeing near-record numbers of adult confirmations
By Patricia McGeever
I FEEL LIKE EVER SINCE BEING BAPTIZED AND GETTING ALL THE SACRAMENTS, I’VE BEEN BECOMING A VERSION OF MYSELF I LOVE.
Aidan and Anjanette Carr decided to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain last year simply because they thought it would be a cool hike. They could not have imagined the hike turning into a religious experience or coming home with a desire to become Catholic.
But that’s exactly what happened. Shortly after the walk, they moved to St. Paul, Minn., began attending St. Thomas More parish to explore the faith, and completed the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA). Together, they received their sacraments at the Easter Vigil.
They are two people among many, in dioceses around the country, who have recently entered the Church. Numbers have been increasing each year, and it’s hard to attribute it to any one thing. But parishes across the Midwest Province and beyond have reported near-record amounts of conversions. Some believe Covid boosted people’s faith. Others attribute it to the National Eucharistic Revival. Still others say it’s due to a cultural shift, or a desire for community.
“The obvious answer is Jesus,” says Fr. Lukas Laniauskas, SJ, pastor of Church of the Gesu in Cleveland.
“I think our world is so unstable right now, and there is so much brokenness, whether it be wars or political infighting, and people are looking for a solid foundation. They’re looking for something to hold on to, to have as a basis, and they’re finding that in Jesus. They’re finding that in the Church.”
The Cleveland parish welcomed 26 new Catholics this year. Among them was a 7th grader from the parish school who brought her parents and brother into the faith as well. Another was a young father, Rudy Libertini, who had been raised Lutheran but married into a Catholic family. Libertini and his wife were looking for a church that would welcome their young family, and when they visited Church of the Gesu, they knew they found a home.
Catechumens and candidates from the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) at St. Thomas More Catholic Community in St. Paul, Minn.
“After attending Mass there for a couple years, I was finally like, if this is the place we’re going to raise our children, I want to be able to go through all of the sacraments and do it with them,” Libertini says. Now, he tries to attend daily Mass.
For Nicholas Square,19, the decision to convert to Catholicism came after his high school math teacher invited him to Mass. As a sophomore, Square struggled at home and at school, sleeping through his classes. That first Mass changed everything. He says his teacher, Coleman Tokar, and his wife, Jennie, saved his life.
Aidan Carr is baptized by Fr. Peter Etzel, SJ, at St. Thomas More.
Newly confirmed Rudy Libertini (right) celebrates at Church of the Gesu in Cleveland with his sponsor, Mary Jo Cherry, and Fr. Lukas Laniauskas, SJ.
“l want to see what they see, I want to understand and read what they read,” Square recalls saying after his Mass with the Tokars. “I want to live the life they live.”
He describes being received into the Church as the greatest thing he’s ever done. “I felt like a completely new person,” he says. “I feel like ever since being baptized and getting all the sacraments, I’ve been becoming a version of myself I love.” Saint Mary Student Parish, for University of Michigan students in Ann Arbor, saw its largest OCIA class, 28 people, in more than a decade.
“The vast majority were undergraduates, which was a bit of a shift from years past,” says the church’s pastor, Fr. Kyle Shinseki, SJ. “There were two young men in particular who were visibly moved. Not only were they in tears, they were almost trembling from the joy and excitement of being received into the Church and receiving their sacraments of initiation. I’ve only seen that level of emotion from an adult male at an ordination.”
After hiking the Camino, Aidan and Anjanette Carr were among the 20 people received into the Church in St. Paul at St. Thomas More’s Easter Vigil, a Mass that pastor Fr. R.J. Fichtinger, SJ, describes as “electric.” “We were excited to have so many people,” Fr. Fichtinger says. “It was fun to have to say, ‘Okay, how are we going to make this reverent but efficient.’”
Although Aidan wasn’t raised with any specific faith, his family was supportive of his decision. “The whole ritual was super beautiful,” Aidan says. “All of that leading up to the Easter Vigil was really beautiful and really different than anything I’d experienced.” Anjanette, who had been raised Methodist, felt a sense of peace at the Easter Vigil in St. Paul.
“Once I was confirmed and we both received the Eucharist and we both went back to our pew, I was holding our daughter and we were praying together, and I just started crying,” she says. “It did feel like something had changed. It did feel beautiful and just complete in a way I hadn’t felt before.”
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Saint Ignatius College Prep senior Courtney Beatty (’26) at The Narrows in Zion National Park as part of the Chicago high school’s On Holy Ground summer course.
Photo: Fernando Fonseca