Nelson Nomura had hoped to surprise his wife Paula on Easter Vigil by becoming a Catholic. But when the time had come for the public Rite of Acceptance, he knew he’d better not keep it a secret.

“With four children, there was no way I could have escaped every Thursday evening,” he said, laughing. Thursday was the night for RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

Nelson, 44, grew up in Hawaii with no religious affiliation. Paula was born and raised Catholic.

They met at George Washington University in Washington D.C. where Nelson had just completed law school and Paula was finishing up a degree in museum studies and anthropology.

The couple took Catholic marriage preparation in New York City and took their vows in a Catholic church in California. They moved around after that, living in New York City, London and Bermuda. During that time, they had daughter Nicola, and sons Alex, Matthew and Thomas. Nomura attended Mass regularly with his family, but had too many reservations to consider joining the faith.

Providentially, the Nomuras left New York City just days before the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. They had decided to leave New York City if their daughter was not accepted to the Convent of the Sacred Heart grade school on 91st Street. Nicola passed the entrance exam, but the school could not contact the family because it had the wrong telephone number. As a result, she was placed first on a waiting list.

That first week of September 2001, the family moved from their 30th floor apartment in a building next to the World Trade Center. The building was severely damaged by the attack and subsequently condemned.

“If by chance we had stayed, my family might not be here,” Nomura said.

So 22 years after he had left Hawaii, Nomura returned with his family. They first went to Mass at St. Augustine Church in Waikiki, then switched to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu where Nomura had opened a law office and his son attended Cathedral Catholic Academy and his daughter was enrolled at St. Andrew’s Priory.

“Our center of the universe is here, so we decided to come here,” he said. “And we definitely like the church.”

Nomura had been thinking of becoming a Catholic for “a long time.”

“In the back of my mind, I had been wrestling with my own sense of what I wanted to do,” he said.

His final decision came after several meetings with Ann Hannon, the cathedral’s director of religious education.

“Ann was a big part of it,” he said. “I had made the decision that at least I would like to go and try it out. She has a very impressive approach.”

Still he had his doubts. The behavior of some Catholics, laity as well as priests, made him think twice.

“Ann is telling me to aspire to the ideal and to (strive for) what that really means and not to worry about other people,” he said. “That was a big part of it for me.”

At the cathedral this year, Hannon is instructing seven catechumens through RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, who will be baptized this Easter Vigil, March 26.

Nomura’s daughter Nicola will be his sponsor. At age eight and the oldest of the four children, she already is a practiced sponsor. She was her baby brother Thomas’ godparent and will be the sponsor for her brother Alex who will receive Confirmation and First Eucharist on April 10.

“She is eight going on 21,” Hannon joked.

Nomura said he was attracted by the church’s morals and values, though the mystery of faith was more difficult to understand.

“A lot of the things the Catholic Church stands for, to me are the right things,” he said. “The bigger concept of faith was harder to me.”

“Being quantitative and logical and trying to always make sense of everything made it hard. Not necessarily having to have everything make sense, but just having faith is still a difficult concept.”

He said that Paula is very happy about his decision to become Catholic.

“I had made a commitment at the time that I got married that was going to raise the kids Catholic and I have always attended church,” he said. “I see the effect that it has on my children, too.”