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This year, each parish brought its own book
By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
At Rites of Election in years past, catechumens would sign one or two books — actually loose-leaf pages collected into an annual volume of names stored in the Office of Worship files at St. Stephen Diocesan Center.
This year it was different.
Bishop Larry Silva ordered each parish have its own permanent book, which would be brought to the rite to be signed, and returned to the parish to be displayed in church until the Easter Vigil when the catechumens are baptized.
At the Rite of Election, catechumens and sponsors list their signatures in the parish book which is then presented to the bishop who also signs it.
Bishop Silva announced the new practice in a letter sent to all pastors last June 22.
He wrote that the book could be used as “a visual symbol” in the “Parish Rite for Sending Catechumens for Election and Candidates for Recognition by the Bishop.” That is the optional ceremony at the parish church just prior to the Rite of Election which “sends” the catechumens off to the Rite of Election.
After the rite, the book “may be displayed near the baptismal font or in another suitable place to remind people to pray for the Elect during their Lenten journey,” the bishop wrote.
The book “also becomes a part of the parish archives,” he said.
Books created for this purpose are available for $30-$50 from many Catholic publishing houses.
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HCH photo by Anna Weaver
Min Ji Ko, of the Korean Catholic Community, signs the Book of the Elect, Feb. 10, in the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa as Sister of Divine Providence Benedicta Ha and Father Peter Kim, Korean Catholic chaplain look on
185 to be baptized this Easter Vigil
By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
The Catholic Church in Hawaii will baptize 185 new Catholics at the Easter Vigil, March 23, according to the diocesan Office of Worship.
The total is 28 more than last year, reversing a downward slide over the past several years in the number of converts in the diocese.
The number includes 23 from the Korean Catholic Community and five from military base chapels.
Since 2000, the highpoint year in the number of converts in Hawaii was 2002 with 258.
Of this year’s catechumens, 57 are listed as children. These numbers do not include infant baptisms.
About 140 others who are already baptized will be received into “full communion,” receiving their first Holy Communion or Confirmation, or both. That number is about 15 more than last year.
A little more than one third of Hawaii’s parishes — 25 of 66 — have no converts this year. Last year 39 parishes had no baptisms.
The catechumens were welcomed and acknowledged in Rites of Election on Oahu, Maui, The Big Island and Kauai, Feb. 9 and 10. Rites of Election are generally held on the first Sunday in Lent.
At each rite, candidates who have been preparing for baptism over the past year through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA, signed their names in the Book of the Elect, signifying their desire to be received into the church at Easter. Bishop Larry Silva presided at the ceremonies on Maui and Oahu.
The Korean Catholic Community’s 23 baptisms is more than twice the number of any Hawaii parish. The ethnic group, which gathers at St. Pius X Church in Manoa, consistently has the highest number of converts in Hawaii every year.
The parish with the highest number is St. Jude, Kapolei, with 11, followed by St. Elizabeth, Aiea, and Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pearl City, with nine each.