3/4/2010
Rite of election welcomes new Catholics
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| Rite of election welcomes new Catholics |
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Ed Langlois
Karl Hellberg wears body armor to work.
Now, this 41-year-old federal special agent is relying on the Catholic Church to keep his faith secure.
“I feel like I have been guided by divine providence through my life, through all the things that happened to me,” says Hellberg, who will become Catholic this Easter at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Parish in Astoria.
One of about 900 people in Oregon who will join the church this year, he works for the National Marine Fisheries Service, enforcing federal law on the high seas.
Hellberg grew up Lutheran in the Astoria area and attended Sunday school. Like most small-town kids, he yearned to leave. So he joined the Coast Guard and sailed around the world for a decade or so. Later years included stints on tugboats, graduate school, the corporate world and a dream job — the Oregon State Police. But budget cuts meant the elimination of scores of junior officers, including him.
During the lull in his career, he joined the Coast Guard Reserve and that led him to his federal job.
Through all this, Hellberg’s faith ebbed and flowed. He was looking for what he really believed, attending high-octane evangelical churches and Mormon services with friends. Nothing set off a spark.
Two and a half years ago, Hellberg married Katie Radu, member of an Astoria Catholic family. He wanted to become Catholic to give the marriage (and its future children) a unified faith. He always suspected, and since has found, close links between Catholicism and the faith of his youth.
He asked Father Ken Sampson, pastor of the Astoria parish, plenty of questions about the tradition of Mary and the saints. Father Sampson explained Catholicism’s reliance on scripture and tradition.
“It absolutely makes sense,” Hellberg says. “It really rings true to me. I almost feel this is exactly where I have been led. It wasn’t just luck.”
As part of the process of becoming Catholic, Hellberg attended a ceremony at St. Mary Cathedral in Portland Sunday. During the rite of election, candidates like him and catechumens (those not yet baptized) were officially recognized by the wider church, beyond their parishes.
At the rites, bishops sign books containing the names of those becoming Catholic.
Archbishop John Vlazny on Sunday told the crowd that the church receives new life from those who answer the call to join as disciples. He cautioned the future Catholics that, as in any family, the people of the church often go right and sometimes go wrong.
The archbishop explained that all church members are called to realize that their lives are not just about them, but to say instead: “My life is about my relationship with God and the other people around me.”
Over the past few weeks, rites of election were held not only at the cathedral, but in Grants Pass, Coos Bay and Eugene. Either Archbishop Vlazny or Bishop Kenneth Steiner presided at each.
“When you make new members, it’s a witness to the whole church,” says Providence Sister Jeremy Gallet, director of worship for the Archdiocese of Portland and organizer of the rite of election. She adds that those joining the church “realize how much bigger this is than themselves.”
At the cathedral Sunday were two sisters raised Protestant, despite their mother’s clear affection for Catholicism.
“We used to laugh that we were the only Protestant kids who carried Catholic medals,” says Sandra Bessent, 60. She’ll become Catholic at St. Mary Church in Albany with her 50-year-old sister, Robin Lindahl.
With roots in Oklahoma and California, they attended Protestant Sunday school as children and got rosaries and Catholic prayer books from their mom. Over the years, their faith practice slowed and stopped.
Bessent, a retired Texas Air National Guard computer tech, first thought about becoming Catholic when Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978. “I thought he was a really great person,” she says.
Over the years, she came to appreciate Catholic Mass, because the congregation is able to participate so much.
Lindhal, a supervisor at a home for people with disabilities, began attending Mass and reading about Catholicism years ago. But she had four young children and a demanding job and put off plans for joining the church.
Eventually, she married Derek, a former military man who grew up Catholic. With space in her life, the urge to faith returned. When she told Derek about her desire, he decided to attend initiation classes with her. He will be confirmed with her at Easter.
“The belief system is definitely what I feel is right for me,” Robin says. “There is the foundation of beliefs, but also the strong foundation of community — the importance of people coming together, being good to each other and looking out for people who are less fortunate.”
Brad Wright, a 42-year-old teacher, was brought to faith by substituting in Catholic school classrooms. When he saw students going to Mass and really enjoying it, he decided he wanted that for himself.
“It’s the community,” says Wright, who will be baptized at Christ the King Parish in Milwaukie.
His interest in Catholicism is not new. In college, he learned about the early church in a class on Roman history. That sparked a fascination with martyrs and the papacy, which he researched over the years. It became a joke among his friends: If you’re on a game show and get a question about popes, Brad can be your lifeline.
Wright, a married father of a 3-year-old daughter, is keen on the social justice tradition in the church and plans to get involved in it. As catechumens and candidates go through the rite of election and approach Easter, their sense of awe and excitement grows, say those who work with them.
“I have seen many ‘aha’ moments when a teaching clicks with them in a new way and the lights go on inside,” says Father Ken Sampson, who leads the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults in Astoria.
Kathy Reilly, who runs the initiation classes in Albany, says catechumens and candidates have moved from questioning their worthiness to feeling a thrill.
“Until now it’s been all in-house,” Reilly says. “Now they’ve gone up to the cathedral and gone to see the archbishop. The sense of being a worldwide church is awesome.”
Kathy Truman, on staff at Christ the King Parish, says the Catholics-to-be are experiencing a paradigm shift.
“This is no longer just something they decided to do, but something they are being called to by God,” said Truman.
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