Journeys into the Church

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

A baby doll.
A real child – or two.
Grandparents.
The refusal of Communion.
All these played a role in the lives of young adults who became Catholics this Easter – despite, or even in part because of, the pandemic.
Two men from St. Boniface Parish in Lunenburg and a woman from St. Louis Parish in Webster shared their stories with The Catholic Free Press. They were among about two dozen people around the diocese who were to enter the Church at the Easter Vigil.
Those baptized at the Easter Vigil were completing a journey which was started years ago.
“I went to church a lot when I was younger, with my grandmother,” Skye Gomes, 23, told The Catholic Free Press before the Easter Vigil at St. Louis. Ms. Gomes said she was not brought up in church, but spent a lot of time with her grandmother, Elizabeth Wetherbee, who took her to church.
But as she got older, Ms. Gomes stopped going. That lasted  for about 10 years.
“The Our Father was the only thing I remembered,” she said; when she was younger her grandmother had given her a baby doll which said that prayer.
In the spring of 2019 she again joined her grandmother at Mass.
It was like “a weight lifted off your shoulders, like a breath of fresh air,” Ms. Gomes said. “I felt good about going.”
Then the coronavirus hit and churches were closed to worshippers.
“I figured, ‘Maybe this is just a few weeks; we’ll get back to it,’” she said. “After a month, I missed going.” She wondered, “Is this ever going to end?”
The reopening of Masses to the public was “another breath of fresh air,” but confusing, as some things were done differently, Ms. Gomes said.
Last July she contacted Louise Forget, St. Louis’ religious education coordinator, about participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, she said. Her grandmother, a member of St. Louis Parish, was her sponsor.
“I knew people in other parishes who have gone through RCIA,” Ms. Gomes said, and they said it was great.
She said she started meeting with Mrs. Forget last October for sacramental preparation through the RCIA.
“It was just the two of us,” Ms. Gomes said. “Granted, we had to be at opposite ends of the table.” Because of the pandemic, she did not meet with the other two people preparing to receive sacraments at St. Louis’ Easter Vigil.
“I’m excited,” Ms. Gomes said as the celebration approached. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. I’m thankful I didn’t get baptized as an infant, because I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did.
“It definitely means a lot.… I can see myself reaching out to help people more,” sometimes in little ways, like letting another driver go first. Becoming a Catholic has helped her be kinder and do the right things, she said.
Seeking to do the right thing steered Matthew Brothers, 40, toward reception of the sacraments at St. Boniface Parish.
“I grew up with a Jewish mother and a Roman Catholic father,” and didn’t go to church or temple, he said. “I always felt like I believed in something, but there was something missing. I used to go to church with friends every now and then.”
Once, in college, he went up to receive Communion, he said. The priest, realizing he wasn’t Catholic, didn’t give him the Eucharist.
“It made me feel disconnected when I wanted to feel more connected,” Mr. Brothers said.
About four years later he met the woman who would be his wife, Laura Brothers.
“I began to go more consistently with her” to church, he said. “Her parents go every week.… She wanted to make sure it stayed a part of her life” and that their children would be raised Catholic.
Those children – twins Wesley and Charlie – are 7.
“They might start asking questions: ‘Why doesn’t Dad get the Eucharist?’” he said. “I’m taking the first steps ahead of them to show them the right path.
“I want them to have a strong faith to fall back on in challenging times,” and to have it at a young age, he said. “The world right now is in a lot of turmoil and I just think it’s important to have a base of support.”
He said he finds the Catholic Church “something very reassuring, very soothing, very meditative” and “a strong moral compass.”
Seeking support in the midst of challenges also drew in Matthew Osgood, 28, the other person who received the three sacraments of initiation at St. Boniface Saturday.
“I grew up Protestant, but I’d always heard great things about the Catholic Church,” he said. He attended a Congregational church and went to Sunday school for many years, he said. Later, life got busy and he wasn’t really going to church.
In 2018 he and Ashley Basile-Osgood married at St. Boniface, and in 2019 their son was born, and was baptized there. Last October their child suffered a concussion, which triggered developmental problems.
Mr. Osgood said he’d been meaning to become Catholic, but this “brought me to my knees looking for some sort of peace.” It raised the question, “How would I get through it?”
He said he and his wife have a strong marriage, and support from the Church. Through his participation in the RCIA he met his next-door neighbor – Mr. Brothers. Another support was his wife’s grandfather, James Basile Jr., with whom he talked at length about the faith and who came from Florida to be his godfather.
“For two people to come forward to be baptized and accept the Catholic faith is encouraging news … to see that we have fruits, even in difficult times,” said Father Anthony Mpagi, St. Boniface’s pastor. He said they are saying “no” to losing faith in the midst of the pandemic, and saying instead, “I would like to follow Jesus; I find in him firmness and fullness of life.”
 
See Easter Vigil photo album