‘Restless hearts’ find peace
Monsignor Roger Arnsparger celebrated an Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday with a nearly full St. Lawrence Basilica and the induction of five newcomers. He poured water from a scallop shell over the head of Myles Rice at a baptismal font adorned with flowers. (Photo by Troy Hull)CHARLOTTE — As the Church ushers in the Easter season, the Diocese of Charlotte is welcoming one of the largest-ever groups of newcomers into the faith – with 1,104 people joining through sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and first Holy Communion at many of its 92 parishes and missions.
As St. Augustine saw it: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Indeed, the Church’s promise to those with “restless hearts” who joined during Saturday’s Easter Vigil Masses – and those who will enter the Church during the Easter season that ends on Pentecost – is the promise of new life in communion with Jesus, whose resurrection offers the faithful healing and salvation.
“It’s inspiring to see the continued growth of our diocese, as more people turn to the Church in their search for God and take their place in the communion of the Church,” says Monsignor Patrick Winslow, the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor. “We have more Latino families and people from all over the country moving in, and this diocese is rising to the occasion to help people find a warm and spiritual home.”
The number of people joining the Church this year is up nearly 30% compared to the average over the past three years – making it one of the largest classes of newcomers in the diocese’s history.
From a former atheist to a former Protestant seminarian, these new Catholics offer a glimpse inside their search for meaning and their joy in finding Jesus.
Mason Sulek, a junior at Lake Norman High School, joined the Church on Saturday evening, during one of the year's most important celebrations, the Easter Vigil Mass.
As a child, he attended Mass only occasionally but had always been interested in God. When he got his driver’s license, he began attending St. Mark Church with his girlfriend’s family, deepening his interest in the faith. Last year, he decided to sign up for classes.
“What Catholics believe about love and forgiveness is so important – how we are supposed to love everyone and learn how to forgive others,” says Sulek, 17. “You don’t have to forget that someone has wronged you, but by forgiving them you don’t have to hold onto that negativity. That’s a very important part of the faith that a lot of people overlook.”
JOINING THE CHURCH
In Greensboro, St. Pius X Parish welcomes 46 new Catholics this Easter – adults, teens and children – including 20 who were to be baptized at the Easter Vigil.
“We have many very interesting folks this year,” says Lindsay Sartorio, the parish’s pastoral associate for formation and evangelization, “including a gentleman that was in the seminary for another Christian faith and a woman from Lithuania who is just brilliant and knows perhaps more than our whole (faith formation) team.”
That woman is Elina Margeviciute, a former atheist who moved to Greensboro from Los Angeles in 2023. Baptized in the Catholic Church in Lithuania out of cultural tradition, she has spent most of her years living a secular life, believing there was nothing “supernatural.” Her interest in faith started a year ago when she noticed how much she admired Christians, so she began to study.
“I was open to Protestantism and Catholicism, but I felt drawn by the message I heard at St. Pius…,” she said. “At that first Mass, I also heard the hymn, ‘They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love,’ and that sank a hook in me.”
In contrast, Ben Garrison, also joining St. Pius X, was very much a believer before finding the Catholic faith. He spent time in seminary for the Wesleyan Church and pursued graduate studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. His Christian history class, taught by a Catholic, revealed the truth he was seeking.
“As I learned more about Christian history and worship and different liturgical traditions,” he said, “I was always drawn to a more structured practice. The idea of the pope and the papacy and that line of Peter from the time of Christ was the main factor in my decision to become Catholic.”
In Asheville, Monsignor Roger Arnsparger celebrated an Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday with a nearly full St. Lawrence Basilica and the induction of five newcomers. He poured water from a scallop shell over the head of Myles Rice at a baptismal font adorned with flowers.
“I grew up around Christian churches but I never got baptized,” Rice said, “so being baptized in the Catholic Church definitely feels right.”
Montreat College student Luke Spencer also joined the Church at the basilica: “I really enjoyed learning about and fully understanding the traditional part of the Catholic Church. Getting to learn these traditions that Father (Arnsparger) could help trace back to Jesus Himself was truly fascinating.”
‘STEP BY STEP’
In Salisbury, high school junior Caleb Fortune joined Sacred Heart Parish after growing up Methodist. He began researching the Catholic faith at the age of 10 and became serious about converting in 2022, finding particular affinity for St. Thomas Aquinas, his confirmation saint.
“I'm trying to take it step by step,” says Fortune, whose parents are both supportive and now interested in the faith. “Everything that I've read so far I've agreed with, and it's really helped me spiritually trying to understand the essence of God and the faith.”
Siblings Kyle Ferguson and Morgan Hoffman joined the Catholic Church March 30 during the Easter Vigil Mass at Sacred Heart in Salisbury.Also at Sacred Heart, Kyle Ferguson, 23, says his interest in the faith led both him his sister to join the Church at Saturday’s Vigil Mass.
“After three or four months of just learning more about the faith, theology and Church history, the Catholic faith seemed more right,” says Ferguson, who had previously attended Baptist services. “So I went to Sacred Heart and I was just blown away by the Mass.”
“It was also exciting,” he says, “because I had this whole new world that no one ever told me about, and it was really cool. The teachings on the Eucharist are one of the biggest things that led me to the Catholic faith. It is ultimately Christ who loves us even to the very end, and always leads us to Him and His Church.”
In the mountain town of Jefferson, Aaron Johnson is joining St. Francis of Assisi Church, which he says will enable him to share the faith more directly with his is wife and their two children.
A patent illustrator, Johnson grew up in the Protestant tradition but was still searching spiritually. He got a taste of the Catholic faith with his wife while they were living in her native Brazil.
“The Catholic Church offered a better worship experience, a more powerful way of approaching God,” he says.
His interest grew when the couple moved to North Carolina and attended Mass at Raleigh’s cathedral. He began studying the faith recently when they moved to Jefferson.
“I’m really looking forward to seriously starting this new relationship with God, and taking part in the Eucharist,” Johnson says. “I’ve been sitting there at Mass for so long watching everybody be able to receive Him, and now I’ll be able to take part in the sacrament. I’ve learned a lot through my studies, but I’m also excited because I know there is still so much to learn.”
In Monroe, Our Lady of Lourdes welcomed 27 newcomers into the Church on Saturday, its largest group since Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor, arrived 12 years ago at the parish of 1,800 families.
“It’s the work of the Holy Spirit,” Father Roberts says. “We didn’t really advertise our classes much this year. I think our growth really reflects the growth across the diocese. It’s wonderful to help them find a place of welcome and love.”
Roberts noted that while most of the newcomers are Hispanic, almost all chose to study the faith in the parish’s English classes – reflecting the continued maturing of the community in Union County, with second- and third-generation Latinos finding a home at Our Lady of Lourdes. Read his full homily.
BECOMING CATHOLIC
Deacon Michael Zboyovski is overjoyed to see so many joining the faith this Easter. Keeping an open heart and mind, he says, allows for the profound movement of the Holy Spirit.
He has served for decades in – and now chairs – the diocese’s faith formation program called the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults or “OCIA” (formerly known as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults or “RCIA”). The program is available at every parish, run by dedicated servants who teach classes in the faith over several months in preparation for entering the Church at Easter.
“The presence of Christ is made manifest as pastors, deacons, catechists, sponsors, laity and faith formation leaders coalesce to bring a warm, welcoming face and loving presence of Christ to all our inquirers,” he says. “Each year I am astounded by the dedication of all our OCIA ministry teams throughout the diocese.”
Mason Sulek, the Huntersville high schooler, found joy in his formation classes and looks forward to growing in his faith.
“The best part of this whole process has been the support of my family and friends and other people at the parish,” Sulek says. “I’ve enjoyed the learning process so much I’m almost sad to see it end, but I also know that when I walk out of the Easter Vigil Mass, I’m going to honestly feel like a new person.”
— Annie Ferguson. Christina L. Knauss and Troy Hull contributed. Photos by Troy Hull, César Hurtado, Giuliana Polinari Riley, MaryAnn Luedtke and provided.
Catholics called to conversion of heart as Lent ends and Easter nears
CHARLOTTE — A week of liturgies commemorating Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection began March 24 with Palm Sunday.
Outside St. Patrick Cathedral, parishioners enjoyed golden sunshine and spring breezes as they gathered at the Marian Grotto for the traditional Palm Sunday Gospel proclamation and procession that recalls Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only days before His crucifixion.
Father Christopher Roux, rector of the cathedral, urged the people gathered not just to relive the historical event, but to act in their own lives.
“As Our Lord entered Jerusalem, the people, in honor of the Messiah, laid their cloaks and palm branches on the ground as a symbol of the One who is coming in,” Father Roux said. “Today we carry branches, but let us, instead of leaving those branches at the feet of Our Lord, let us leave our hearts and our lives at His feet – thanking Him for that which He has done for us, and offering our lives in service of Him in this world, to bring Him into every corner that we enter into.”
Waving bright green palm fronds and singing joyfully, the congregation then processed into the cathedral as the Mass continued.
“Forty days we’ve waited to shout Hosanna in the highest,” said Marie Davis, who traveled from Greensboro with her husband to attend Palm Sunday Mass at the cathedral. “With this beautiful day comes the reality that we are in need of a savior, not just a king. That we are sinners and His passion and death open the doors to heaven for us.”
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For his homily on the day’s Gospel from Mark, Father Roux reflected on the different types of onlookers present at Jesus’ crucifixion.
“I had heard once that there were three types of people beneath the cross of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” he said. “The first type were those who were sympathetic. The second were those who were empathetic. The sympathetic and empathetic are those types who see something happening and feel sorrow, or see it and actually suffer with the one who is suffering. But then there’s the third type, the one who is antipathetic. The ones who hate…those who hated Christ, who hated suffering, who hated everything He stood for.”
He noted the words in the Gospel passage, when the crowd – which once had welcomed and cheered Jesus as He entered the holy city – now jeered and shouted, “Crucify Him!”
“You and I would say we would never be among those individuals, and yet how do we live our lives? Do we live our lives trying to root out sin, the sin that causes Christ to go to the cross in the first place?” he asked the congregation. “Or does Palm Sunday just give us (a palm) to tie into knots, and Holy Week means we can go to the beach or golfing?”
The past 40 days of Lent have offered us the opportunity to purify our hearts, minds and souls and to prepare for the celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection, and Father Roux called parishioners to rise to the occasion.
“This, the holiest of all weeks, let us not be antipathetic to what Christ goes through for us. Let us not even be sympathetic and only sorry that He did,” he said. “Let us be empathetic and put our hearts right there on the cross with Him and promise Him that our hearts will change. That we will seek holiness of life, so that His death may not be in vain for us. That one day, being holy, we may be with Him in heaven.”
— Spencer K.M. Brown. Photos by Troy Hull and provided.
Palm Sunday across the diocese
