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By Renée St. Martin Wizeman
Each year, tens of thousands of people
come into the Catholic Church during the
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. And
each person brings a unique conversion
story, a series of testaments to persevering
through doubt, fear and other obstacles, to
become Catholic. This year, almost 200
people were welcomed into churches
through the Diocese of Helena during the
Easter Vigil.
While the beautiful Easter Vigil is
months behind us, and the new class of
RCIA has yet to be called together, the stories
of several recent additions to our
Church family are as vibrant today as they
were in April. These stories are worth sharing,
worth telling, worth repeating.
At the end of June, part of Holy Rosary
Parish’s most recent RCIA group gathered
for a group interview. It was something of
a mini-reunion for them, and their comfort
with one another was immediately evident.
This is comfort born of a shared vulnerability
and a shared journey.
Cynthia Mernin, Erika and Jerimiah
and Reece, Julie Riendeau, Catherine and
Mike VanEngelen, Jan and John
Wenderoth, and RCIA coordinator and
parish sacristan Connie Lewis shared their
stories. Their stories present the Church
through the eyes of those who very consciously,
after careful consideration, selfscrutiny
and sacrifice, chose to become
Catholics.
Their ages and backgrounds were
diverse, but many commonalities emerged.
John, Julie, Jerimiah and Erika all spoke
about the positive influence of Relevant
Radio, carried by local low-power FM station
KOFK in the Bozeman valley, upon
their initial inquiries into Catholicism,
specifically mentioning Father Corapi’s
compelling testimonies.
“I was looking for a hockey game, and
came across this guy on TV, and I was just
hooked. Forget about the hockey game,”
John recalled. The “guy” in question was
Father Corapi, and John continued to listen
to him on the EWTN TV station and
Relevant Radio.
“Relevant Radio was a big part of it for
me – in the seven minute drive to and from
work, it softened my heart enough to let God
work his way in. So I agreed to attend the
RCIA process with my wife, Erika. It blew
away the misconceptions and false ideas I
had about the Church. The combination of
Relevant Radio and the RCIA was a huge
blessing. Without those, I’d have never
become Catholic,” Jerimiah said.
Erika explained that she became
Christian in college, after growing up in an
atheist household. “I listened to Relevant
Radio, because it was a better alternative
to the other Christian radio station. The
teaching I heard on the radio about John 6
and its relation to the Eucharist was a turning
point,” she said. Erika continued her
inquiry through self-study, reading contemporary
Catholic apologists’ works and
studying the teachings of the early
Christian church, which kept pointing her
to the Catholic Church.
Mike came to Catholicism over a period
of eight years. He had a Protestant college
roommate who was converting to
Catholicism, and began asking him questions
about the Church. “He provided solid
answers to the hang ups I had,” he said,
explaining that the church he went to questioned
the Christian foundation of the
Catholic Church.
“I saw lots of other Christian denominations
were abandoning their role as leaders
in society. They took a follower’s role
to gain acceptance. I’m sympathetic to the
idea of not turning people off, but if you
compromise clear Biblical concepts for the
sake of popularity, you’ve got a problem.
The church I was in used silly gimmicks,
which was a real turn off for me. After not
going to church for awhile, I started
attending Mass,” Mike said.
It became evident about three years ago
that he would become Catholic; he and his
wife Katherine, who is Catholic, were
married at Holy Rosary, and when they
found out they were expecting, the bar was
raised. “I wanted to raise our daughter
with two parents of the same faith,” he
said, holding three-month-old Eleanor.
“Last October I knocked on the door of
Holy Rosary and said ‘I want to become
Catholic,’ and they said ‘Your timing is
great, RCIA’s just about to start.’”
Jan noted that she grew up in a
Protestant household and had many
Catholic friends. “I grew up with a strong
faith, but in my adult years, I found my
faith lacking. There was a lack of continuity,
as we moved
from place to place. I
was really searching
for a church home. I
was fortunate that
my husband John
was in the same
place as me, searching.
We made an
appointment to meet
with Father Leo
Proxell, and he was
very welcoming,
very friendly, and
gave us guidance.”
Jan’s conviction
that she would
become Catholic
came during a
Cursillo; her dental
hygienist was the
rectora, and had
invited Jan and John
to experience Cursillo.
“The hardest
part was not telling
John about it before
he experienced his
Cursillo weekend,” she recounted.
John’s Cursillo weekend had a rocky
start. He had decided beforehand that the
weekend would determine whether or not
he became Catholic. “I went to Cursillo,
and the first night, I thought
‘I made a mistake.’ Then Friday didn’t get
better; Janet had predicted, in her journal,
that I wouldn’t like it. One of the other
men encouraged me to go forward for a
blessing during the Eucharist, which I’d
never done before. And on Saturday, it felt like
the Holy Spirit spoke to me, I felt I needed to
be there, and by Sunday, I was convinced that
I should become Catholic,” he said.
John was baptized Lutheran as a child
by his minister uncle, and had felt somewhat
overwhelmed by the enormity of the
Catholic Church when he was searching
for his church home.
“There were just so many areas. But
Father Leo set my mind at ease, by saying
just go to Mass, watch what happens there,
so we did. That helped, so I didn’t feel like
we were intruding,” he explained.
Julie was raised Methodist, but her
father is Catholic. “Having a relationship
with God was always important, and faith
was always a strong part of my life, she
said.
“Two years ago, I started on a journey;
I found myself in a personal crisis situation,
and my dad came to my rescue. We
started talking about how to get through it,
we prayed together on the phone. I moved
from Dallas to Bozeman to be closer to
family, and went to several different
churches, trying to find a church home. I
heard Father Leo speak, and his homilies
were phenomenal; then I listened to Father
Corapi, and his message ‘If you stand for
nothing, you’ll fall for anything’ really hit
home,” Julie explained.
Cynthia was one of two “Remembering
Church” participants this year. She was
raised in the Episcopal Church, and converted
to Catholicism when her parents joined in
the ’50s and ’60s.
“There’s an awful lot I’ve probably
taken for granted, but also an awful lot that
was very meaningful to me as I was growing
up. I encourage parents to bring their
children up with some kind of religious
faith, because I think it’s important in your
life’s journey,” she said.
She married her husband at Holy
Rosary Parish 37 years ago; they lived in a
remote part of Wyoming and weren’t
active in the church, for about 25 years.
“We moved back to town, but it didn’t
come back right away, due to the demands
of family. But I had a sense of responsibility
– that I should be more participatory in
the community. I never, ever felt I’d left
the Church or didn’t belong. I held the
tenets of the faith all along,” she said.
The group was in agreement that going
through the RCIA with one another and
their sponsors helped alleviate fears,
doubts and loneliness. This year, each session
opened with a question, with queries
as diverse as “What’s your favorite ice
cream and why” to “Name your favorite
saint.” And Father Leo answered them
with the rest of the group. “We got to know
him, so he was right there in the trenches
with us, talking about everything and
answering our questions. And he got to
know us, too,” Julie said.
“It was nice coming to RCIA, to hear
everyone talking so openly about their
faith, and to help me become more open,”
Katherine said, noting that while she’s a
lifelong Catholic, her comfort with speaking
about her faith grew through attending
RCIA with her husband Mike; her father
was his sponsor, and not in Bozeman, so
she attended the sessions as his proxy.
Lent and the Triduum were special,
intense experiences for the RCIA group.
“We got our feet washed. It was really
powerful. We came from a church where
there was no liturgy, so all of the symbolism
and physical representation is very
meaningful and makes the experience
much richer,” Erika said.
“With the Easter Vigil, going through
that process, you are just so hungry for the
Eucharist,” Jan said. “Never having experienced
the Eucharist before…” Her voice
grew soft and her face filled with joy, as
she spoke again, “That’s where it’s at.”
Murmurs of agreement came from around
the table.
As they progress on their individual
journeys, each seems to intuitively recognize
what it is they’ve found, and they are
eager, in their own ways, to share this discovery
with others. Jan and John are active
in a Fourth Day group and Cursillo, and
Julie intends to be involved with the
RCIA, perhaps as a sponsor or team member.
Connie, who was Julie’s sponsor, continues
to meet with her weekly for dinner,
and the two women are godmothers to
Erika and Jerimiah’s children, who were
baptized in June.
“We have not learned all that we need
to learn. It is a lifetime journey; what I’ve
found is some peace through the beauty of
the Catholic Church, the community, I
liked the idea that we’re all together,
worldwide, when we read scripture every
day and on Sundays; so I’m not only part
of my community, but part of a larger,
worldwide one,” Jan said.
Connie – “the embodiment of RCIA”
as Cynthia called her – summed up the
RCIA experience well. “RCIA and Easter
Sunday aren’t the end of anything. It’s the
beginning of the Catholic journey of their
lives, and the continuation of ours.”
Part of the 2009 Holy Rosary Parish RCIA group gathers around a table in the parish rectory. From left, standing:
John Wenderoth, Father Leo Proxell, Mike VanEngelen, Catherine and Eleanor VanEngelen, Cynthia Mernin, Connie
Lewis, Jan Wenderoth; seated at table, from left, Julie Riendeau, Erica, Peter, Jerimiah and Hannah Reece. (Montana Catholic/R.S. Wizeman photo).
Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 25, No. 8, August 21, 2009.
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