By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Catechumens sign the Book of the Elect during the Rite of Election ceremony held March 6, 2022 at St. Mary Cathedral. Archbishop Thomas Wenski conducted two Rite of Election ceremonies at St. Mary Cathedral while Auxiliary Bishop Enrique Delgado conducted a separate ceremony at St. Bonaventure Church in Broward.
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Catechumen Jonathan Rogers, left, sits with his sponsor, Sean Festa, during the Rite of Election ceremony held March 6, 2022 at St. Mary Cathedral. Both are University of Miami students from St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center.
MIAMI | Alexander Saavedra, 38, said bad experiences with the Mormon Church, which he had joined when he was 18, made him angry with God. Then two men, whom he called angels, led him to the Catholic Church.
“Father Christopher Marino and Chief Robert Hevia were a great influence,” said Saavedra, a Miami firefighter.
Father Marino, rector of St. Mary Cathedral and a chaplain for the City of Miami Fire Rescue, was very compassionate, Saavedra said. “He came to several calls in bad neighborhoods. He remembered my name. He asked me, ‘Alex, do you believe in God? Chief Hevia explained Catholic principles to me. He said that I should be in the Rite of Christian Initiation program. Chief Hevia was my sponsor. Father Marino and Chief Hevia are real Catholics.”
Saavedra, from St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center in Coral Gables, was one of 247 catechumens — those who have never received Christian baptism — who participated in the annual Rite of Election, held the first Sunday of Lent, March 6, 2022. Archbishop Thomas Wenski welcomed Saavedra and the others as members of the “elect” during two ceremonies at St. Mary Cathedral. Auxiliary Bishop Enrique Delgado welcomed another 111 catechumens during another ceremony at St. Bonaventure Church in Davie.
The catechumens came from 57 of the archdiocese’s 109 parishes and missions. The catechumens now enter a period of intense preparation leading up to their reception of the sacraments of initiation — baptism, confirmation and Communion — at the Easter Vigil.
“My twin brother, a Miami Beach firefighter, is also enrolling in the RCIA program,” Saavedra said. “I plan to go with him even though I already went through the program.”
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Sponsor Nancy Fleitas places her hand on the shoulder of Kathleen Staples, both from Little Flower Church, Coral Gables, during the Rite of Election ceremony held March 6, 2022 at St. Mary Cathedral.
Catechumen Kathleen Staples said she has been searching for God for most of her life, but she had been looking in the wrong places. “I now feel that God is reeling me in,” she said after the ceremony.
Staples, an artist and retired University of Miami art teacher, said she looked at different religions throughout her life, but didn’t pursue any religious affiliation when she was younger.
“The Catholic religion gets straight to the point,” said Staples, who attended the ceremony with her sponsor, Nancy Fleitas, from Little Flower Church in Coral Gables. She studied “A Course in Miracles” and attended 12-step programs. “I felt there were way too many words. Catholicism is very simple, there’s lots of tradition and beautiful symbols. It’s the true religion.”
Staples said that something her father said in 2013, as he was dying from congestive heart failure at the age of 91, made her think about the afterlife.
“He said, loudly, ‘Kathleen, take me home, now,’” Staples recalled. “I didn’t understand what he meant, but now I do. I don’t want to waste my life without having gotten to the truth. What is the truth of this life?”
She said that she read books by British writer and lay theologian C.S. Lewis that motivated her. She also was inspired by beautiful works of art in Florence, Italy.
“They were awesome paintings,” she said. “The artists obviously received inner inspiration to portray those heavenly images. I got a sense that there was something great out there. I think God showed me the way through art. That’s how he caught me.”
Another catechumen, Jonathan Rogers, 21, is the son of a Christian mother and Jewish father. The University of Miami meteorology student said that his only exposure to Judaism was during the Jewish holidays when he participated with his parents and friends. One day, a friend from the University of Miami’s U Catholic Ministry invited him to a Mass at St. Augustine Church.
“I knew very little about the Catholic religion,” he said. “I asked my friend what was that cracker that Catholics ate at the Mass. He told me it was the Eucharist. I ended up going regularly with my friends. I started praying in June when the Champlain Towers collapsed. I realized then that I needed to pray more often. I am here today because I am responsible to God.”
Archbishop Thomas Wenski told the catechumens that they now were among “the elect,” those chosen to become saints, or as the word is translated in Creole, “friends of God.”
“As the day of baptism draws nearer — the day on which your conversion — your turning to God and turning away from sin — is solemnized in the Rites of Christian Initiation, remain steadfast in prayer and know that your Catholic brothers and sisters are praying for you, and awaiting with great joy your entry into the Church,” the archbishop said.
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Catechumens from various parishes stand and are recognized during the Rite of Election ceremony held March 6, 2022 at St. Mary Cathedral. Archbishop Thomas Wenski conducted two Rite of Election ceremonies at St. Mary Cathedral while Auxiliary Bishop Enrique Delgado conducted a separate ceremony at St. Bonaventure Church in Broward.
