More than 1,000 children, teenagers and adults filled the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast yesterday to prepare to enter the Catholic Church this Easter.
Children and adults and their families and friends joined church officials in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, a liturgy marking the final period of preparation before the sacraments of initiation at Easter. The liturgy is held each year on the first Sunday of Lent.
As many as 1,233 people are expected to enter the Catholic Church this Easter, the largest number in recent years, officials with the Archdiocese of Washington said yesterday.
"Welcome to full Communion," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, after each of the two ceremonies held yesterday afternoon. "You knew you needed something more than you had. … Somehow, over all the noise of the world, you heard the Lord say, ‘I want you to hear I love you, and I want you to come into My family.’"
[Via Fr. Tucker]
3 comments
I went to the Rite of Election in our Archdiocese yesterday with a friend I’m sponsoring who’s entering the Church at Easter. She was very excited. I’m excited that she’s excited. Now, we just have to make it through Lent first. . .
“Full Communion” did I miss a step here?
These fine people are still just inquiring, they are no where near “Full Communion”. They are still on the journey to “Full Communion”. You would think a Cardinal Archbishop could get it right. Perhaps he was misquoted? — Yeah right!.
I was there, I think that is a misquote, because I sure didn’t hear him say specifically that. I think he said “(something)…welcoming you to full communion…(and then the rest of the quote)” but it was definitely future, not present, tense. And I’m pretty sure it was after the part of the ceremony recognizing the Candidates, not at the end of the whole ceremony.
Mind you, I was in a heightened emotional state brought on by the fact that it was the first time I’d ever been to the shrine, the first time I’d ever seen Cardinal McCarrick in person, and it was after all the Rite of Election. (I’m a Candidate, not a Cathecumen, but it was no less awesome and experience.)