Angelus News | May 17, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 10
On the cover: Emma D. and Roberto M. read during a class session at San Miguel School in Watts, one of 24 schools in lower-income areas across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles participating in the new Solidarity Schools initiative. On Page 10, Theresa Cisneros examines the program’s ambitious goals and talks to participants who describe its early success in creating a ‘culture of literacy’ among disadvantaged students.
On the cover: Emma D. and Roberto M. read during a class session at San Miguel School in Watts, one of 24 schools in lower-income areas across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles participating in the new Solidarity Schools initiative. On Page 10, Theresa Cisneros examines the program’s ambitious goals and talks to participants who describe its early success in creating a ‘culture of literacy’ among disadvantaged students.
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LOST AND<br />
FOUND<br />
What’s behind this year’s apparent spike<br />
in adult baptisms around the country?<br />
BY ANN RODGERS<br />
Archbishop José H. Gomez with the adult catechumens<br />
and candidates welcomed into the Catholic Church<br />
at the Easter Vigil at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the<br />
Angels March 29. | ARCHDIOCESE OF LA<br />
At the Easter Vigil last month in the Cathedral of Our<br />
Lady of the Angels, 66-year-old Michael Cardona was<br />
received into the Catholic Church after a spiritual<br />
journey that included two Protestant baptisms and 30 years as<br />
a Hindu guru.<br />
“I was lost,” said Cardona, who identifies with the prodigal<br />
son. He had significant health problems and sensed the Holy<br />
Spirit urging him not to delay.<br />
“I had to make sure that I at least got the Eucharist one time<br />
before I die,” he said.<br />
He joined a surge of adults who entered the Church nationwide<br />
this Easter. Baptisms of adults, older children, and teens<br />
hit an all-time high in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with<br />
2,075 — an increase of 38% over the 2016 record. Cardona<br />
was among 1,521 candidates received after baptism in other<br />
Christian traditions, bringing the total to 3,696.<br />
National numbers are unavailable, but many individual<br />
dioceses reported dramatic increases. The Archdiocese of<br />
Baltimore rose more than a third to 663. The 2,364 converts<br />
in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston marked the first<br />
total above 2,000 since 2019. Increases were not confined to<br />
large, urban archdioceses. The Diocese of Yakima in the high<br />
desert of central Washington reported the most converts in its<br />
73-year history, with 460.<br />
Social scientists attribute the increase to pent-up demand<br />
after COVID-19.<br />
Mark Gray crunches sacramental statistics as the senior<br />
research associate at the Center for Applied Research in<br />
the Apostolate (CARA). Pointing to indications that Sunday<br />
Mass attendance is back to pre-COVID levels, he believes<br />
increased conversions reflect that rebound.<br />
During COVID, “a lot of parishes were unable to have<br />
Mass and to celebrate the sacraments. There are people who<br />
would have entered the Church at that time, but couldn’t,”<br />
he said.<br />
Engagement to a Catholic is the most common reason<br />
people enter RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), he<br />
said.<br />
“So not only did you probably have a delay in those marriages,<br />
but it also delayed people being able to go through RCIA.”<br />
Marilyn Santos, associate director of the Secretariat of Evangelization<br />
and Catechesis at the U.S. Conference of Catholic<br />
Bishops, believes that post-COVID catch-up is just one part<br />
of the story.<br />
16 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>17</strong>, <strong>2024</strong>
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