Pope Francis declared this year of 2025 to be a holy year of hope. He called upon all of us to be “pilgrims of hope.”  But in order to bring hope, we have to have hope; and in order to have hope we have to find hope ourselves. Hope, remember, is not the same as optimism or looking on the bright side of things. Hope is rooted in reality; but it is also rooted in the belief that nothing is impossible with God.

One of the places that I always find hope is at the annual Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion at Holy Name Cathedral, where I was this past Sunday afternoon. It was one of four ceremonies which the archdiocese holds each year for those participating in the Order of Christian Initiation. It is for adults and young people who were never baptized, never made their First Communion or who were baptized in another religious tradition and now want to become Catholic. In this ritual the bishop (in our case Cardinal Cupich) officially recognizes their desire to receive the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil Mass and (in the case of the unbaptized) declares them “the elect” of God.

For our ceremony the Cathedral was jammed full, with over 1100 people in attendance—more than half of them seeking to become full members of the Catholic Church. They were called forth parish by parish, each person by name; and when all the catechumens and candidates had come forward, the enormous sanctuary at Holy Name was filled, with some spilling over into the area where the piano and the cantor are located. As they all returned to their seats after receiving the blessing of the Cardinal, the applause and the cheers rang out. Yes, of course, not everyone will stay invested in the Church when the discipline of attending weekly sessions fades away; yet studies have shown that adults who go through the OCIA have much higher rates ofattendance at Sunday Mass and participation in parish activities than their contemporaries who were baptized as infants. Our own research indicates as much. Those who participate in OCIA at Assumption are mostly young adults, many of them recently married or preparing for marriage.  As they start families, many move to the suburbs and others relocate to places closer to their hometown. As a class project when he was studying for the diaconate, Deacon Kevin reached out to all of our OCIA “graduates” from the previous eight years. He found alumni all over the country, living out their Catholic faith. We now have active alumni living in other countries. While we do not always see the fruit of their faith journey, it is good to know that we are “seeding” the church in other places.

I am always humbled by the people who come forward each year to participate in our OCIA. In our secular culture there is rarely any social pressure to be baptized or join a church or become Catholic. God, though, instills a hunger for something more that can be hard to ignore. It is wonderful to see a sense of community forming among the participants and their sponsors and some enduring friendships taking shape, as well as seeing participants getting involved in serving the community and developing a deeper understanding of what it means to be Catholic and a disciple of Jesus Christ. This year we are blessed with fourteen catechumens and candidates, eleven in the adult program and three in our youth program. We celebrated the Rite of Sending with all fourteen at the 12:15pm Mass last Sunday, and it was great to see our own much smaller sanctuary filled from column to column with those seeking to become full members of the Catholic Church.

When my father was baptized as a young adult, there was no OCIA or integration with the faith community. One took private instructions (or if numbers were larger) attended a convert class. When he finished the last chapter in the adult catechism, he was baptized one evening, with just himself, the priest, and his sponsor in church. The following weekend, he made his “first communion” with the congregation, and was confirmed when the bishop came to confirm the children. When I was confirmed in 1961 at the age of eight, this system was still in place, and I remember wondering what those “old” people were doing (some of them probably in their twenties) lining up behind us in the Confirmation procession. Now we do all that at the Easter Vigil Mass when a congregation has gathered. Every year I encourage all of you who can to attend the Easter Vigil Mass (Yes, it “counts” for Sunday)  and let our new Catholics know how glad you are that they have chosen to follow Christ as part of the Catholic Church. It is an experience in which all of us can find reasons for hope.

                                                        Fr. Joe