Every Tuesday night, 800 to 900 students converge on a chapel at Lille Catholic University for the Mass.

Burning attraction

For the six students who initiated the Masses, the unexpectedly successful candlelit formula is one they want others to adopt.

Numbers have grown each month since the initiative was launched in 2016.

They say that, within three years, attendance has surpassed the capacity of the 300-person chapel they were using.

They moved to a bigger place in 2019.

Within a year, the building's 600-seat capacity was overfull.

During Lent this year, security turned away hundreds of the faithful since regulations forbid more than 900 people in the building.

Simplicity of beauty

A student at the university says she thinks the candlelit Mass's simplicity of beauty is the big draw-card for young people.

The Masses demonstrate an attachment to the beauty of the liturgy and are known for the quality of the preachers.

"Over and above the various movements developing within the Church today, I think that what is most likely to attract young people is the simplicity of beauty" she says.

She says a friend who usually attends only the traditional Latin Mass, because of his quest for beauty finds himself completely in this celebration.

"I think he's far from alone."

Another student says he thinks the "World Youth Day Lisbon" effect has also added to the weekly gathering's fervour.

"People attract people ... immersion in the dark also attracts many young people estranged from the Church, who are thus no longer afraid of being judged by their neighbours" he says.

"The time — 10pm — also represents an ideal moment to give something to God and receive something in return" says university chaplain Father Charles-Marie Rigail.

Setting the scene

The candles are placed mainly in the choir and central aisle, so only Christ on the crucifix is illuminated.

"Everything is focused on the Word of God, of his Church" Rigail says. It offers "a solid anchor for all those who are thinking about their future".

He says nothing social media offers can quench young people's thirst to belong to something beyond fashions and ephemeral electronic devices.

"This is how to touch people's hearts, break down current prejudices about the Church and raise awareness of its usefulness and relevance, trying to offer something that is good and as right as possible."

Alongside the community dimension of being part of a crowd, darkness penetrated by candlelight makes for a very personal experience, a necessary condition for the interiority that the Masses aim to foster, Rigail says.

Evangelisation

New catechumens have doubled every year since 2020.

"I make it a point to stay and chat with people after Mass ... some of who ... end up wanting to know more, while some non-practising believers decide to go further in their faith" Rigail says.

The evangelising mission is reinforced throughout the week in chaplaincy office and volunteer efforts.

Ultimately, the initiative is about building Catholics capable of being actors of their own faith and exporting this model, Rigali says.

Source

• National Catholic Register

The Diocese of East Anglia's New Evangelisation Commission study "Why Adults Become Catholics" found the spiritual restlessness focus was tightly targeted.

Study participants report a specifically spiritual restlessness, rather than a sense of "general unease with their lives".

The study participants

The study interviewed 10 adults who had joined the Church in the past five years.

They agreed to join the qualitative research study after Bishop Peter Collins wrote to every parish priest in East Anglia to find participants .

Five of those who took part were men, and five were women. The youngest was 23, the oldest 61 while the average age was 45 years.

Their previous religious affiliations varied.

Among the group were a former atheist-turned-Buddhist, two ex-agnostics plus various others - non-practising Catholics, Mormons, Pentecostal Christians and Protestants.

Referring to their former faith practice, many said "something was missing" for them.

Joining the Church proved for everyone the end of a "protracted"and "self-initiated" spiritual journey.

All but one took their parish RCIA course.

"For most it helped to cement and further develop their previous self-directed exploration of Catholicism" the researchers said.

The study interviews

During hour-long interviews, each revealed becoming Catholic had been an "incremental" process.

This typically included "working through" key Catholic beliefs regarding Mary and Purgatory. Deciding to attend Mass was a key moment.

Many mentioned finding a sense of "reverence" in the Catholic Church particularly during Mass and Eucharistic Adoration.

"Intellectual drivers might take you there, but the spiritual and emotional connection keeps you there" one study member commented.

Social media

Social media played a key role in adults' journeys to Catholicism.

"YouTube videos appeared not to be sought primarily for inspiration and encouragement, but rather for their information and instructional value" said researchers.

"The evangelisation potential of social media, particularly prominent Catholic YouTube channel hosts, cannot be underestimated."

Researchers also warned however, that the "accessibility of social media content providers carries the risk of distorted information, and social media company algorithms cannot be relied upon as consistently safe sources".

Evangelisation methods including social media must prove "direction" and "recommendations" in this area, the researches said.

Rising by the number

The study findings reflect a recent upsurge in numbers joining the church.

Nearly 1,000 people are reported to have become Catholic this Easter in the Archdiocese of Southwark and Diocese of Westminster.

On Good Friday, Westminster Cathedral had to turn worshippers away after reaching its 3,000-seat capacity.

In the Diocese of East Anglia, 65 people on average join the Church every year.

Source

• The Tablet

The stereotype is that he or she is a sort of reactionary simpleton, a bit mean, a bit senile, obsessing over abstruse texts, preferring Mass to sleeping in on Sundays, and insisting on obeying an antiquated sect whose main activity is covering up sexual abuse.

This pious person has only three obsessions: to forbid women from doing as they please with their bodies, to prevent LGBT individuals from living their lives, and to force the sick to suffer for as long as possible.

This kind of Catholic is logically the last of its kind, with a perspective that's outdated and irrelevant.

To top it all off, this clueless person has yet to realise that Jesus never existed, as people like the prolific French philosopher Michel Onfray assert.

If this kind of figure does not appeal to you, it doesn't for me, either.

And it certainly isn't what motivated 7,000 adults to officially become Catholics this past Easter here in France.

This large number of adults who were baptized during the Easter Vigil is an unprecedented leap for the Church in this country.

For several months now, Catholic observers have sensed that something is happening, which escapes the official discourse of French society. In some dioceses, such as Montpellier in the south, the catechumens were twice as numerous this year compared to last year.

Conversion is possible for anyone

It's shocking! How could we have foreseen it?

How can these people want to jump into holy water when everything in modern society attempts to dissuade them, and when they don't even know what a holy water font is anymore?

Do these new Catholics that have emerged from nowhere ignore the image of the Church that is conveyed by the media and social networks?

Did they ask for permission from the rulers of secularized society? Are they misinformed? Manipulated? After all the efforts made to repel them, how can they show up in good faith?

No one knows if this springtime of faith will last.

Sometimes there can be late frosts that ruin a beautiful bloom, and then - poof! - there goes the harvest we were dreaming of.

But meanwhile, God laughs at our shock, as it is written in the second Psalm:

"Why do the nations protest and the peoples conspire in vain?

Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one:

"Let us break their shackles and cast off their chains from us!

"The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them."

The mischievous Creator probably makes fun of our pastoral plans that aim for quantifiable results.

God finds Catholics in myriad ways, even in places where we don't go.

Le Pèlerin, one of La Croix's sister publications, once recounted the humble testimony of a young parliamentary assistant whom the Messiah came to fetch when he was 12-years-old.

The young man secretly bought a Bible with his pocket money, and the damage was done.

Reading it, he became a Christian.

He is not the only one to whom such a mishap has occurred, and conversion is possible for anyone, whether they be on the political left or political right.

God finds a way to draw people to himself

With all this in mind, however, the Gospel tells us that the disciples scatter when the situation turns dark. 1

In the Passion narrative according to St. Mark, only two outsiders confess, by their action or by words, the messianic status of Christ.

A woman breaks a jar of expensive perfume over Jesus' head, and when everything is finished in the most astounding of apparent failures, a Roman centurion - not even a lifelong Catholic — proclaims the crucified one as the "Son of God".

Even if they weren't the greatest theologians, these new Christians who knew nothing at all grasped an important truth - it's at the lowest point that the Most High lets himself be touched.

When the Church is flat on the ground and we lukewarm disciples wander around dazed in the messiness of our modern culture, God finds a way to draw people to himself.

This springtime of faith might indeed be a new beginning.

• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission
• Jean-Pierre Denis, a veteran journalist and editor, is the publisher of La Croix

They - catechumens (those who have never been baptised) and candidates (who have been baptised, but not as Catholics) - will all become members of the Catholic Church this Easter.

Numbers up

In Brisbane, the Easter Vigil at St Stephen's Cathedral will see 128 catechumens baptised and 70 candidates received into the Church.

At Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral, catechumen and candidate numbers are even more impressive, having nearly tripled in three years.

They have risen from 107 in 2021, to 179 in 2023, and to 266 this year.

Rite of Election

One of the last steps on the journey to becoming a Catholic involves the Rite of Election.

At this, they are presented to their parish as people about to join them as parish family members.

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) organisers actually love the Rite of Election. They love seeing each person to be received into the Church at Easter, hearing their name called out and receiving words of support from their family and friends.

It's a "beautiful moment" to see them take their next step in their faith journey says Arnaud Hurdoyal, Evangelisation Brisbane's adult formation officer.

"It's also the culmination of a lot of hard work."

Parishes have been doing a great job responding positively to people wanting to "learn more about who Jesus is" she added.

"It's amazing the impact that this has on the people who are journeying with the catechumens and candidates as well.

The Rite of Election has roots in traditions held since the early centuries of the Church. It has existed in its current form since the promulgation of the RCIA in 1972.

It is one of two annual liturgical celebrations for a diocese - the other being Chrism Mass.

Simon Yeak is the RCIA Co-ordinator at the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation. He is delighted with the support given to catechumens and candidates at the Rite of Election.

"It was incredible to see not a single pew free in the entire Cathedral" he says.

"The response from catechumens and candidates that I personally know said that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that they would not soon forget."

Source

• Catholic Weekly
• Catholic Leader

One involved his being mugged by a hitchhiker to whom he had offered a ride. I think my mom related this tale as a warning against good-natured but borderline foolish benevolence.

The second dealt with him calling my mother his favorite granddaughter named Sheila.

The third was that he converted to Catholicism. I cannot remember the religion from which he shifted.

For some reason, I always saw stories one and two as byproducts of story three, as though his changing religions somehow informed the way he went about all other activities in life.

My mom liked to say her grandfather had the faith of a convert.

She also used this expression to describe my paternal grandfather, who converted from the Baptist faith to the Lutheran church.

The implication was that there was something richer, even holier, about a convert's spirituality, whatever that spirituality may be.

I was always intrigued by this idea of a convert's religious ideology being definably distinct from someone else's. Continue reading.

Brian Harper is a writer, musician and community outreach coordinator for a small business. He has lived and worked in Peru, South Africa, Italy, and the United States.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Image: Brian Harper Music