574 candidates and catechumens will enter the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Detroit at Easter; 'It's my home,' participant says
DETROIT — For years, Bill Cartwright prayed that he would find himself a church within the Detroit community where he grew up.
He just didn't think that search would end with him becoming Catholic.
Moving back home following years spent in the Grand Rapids area, Cartwright was introduced to a church he had never noticed before, near where he had been raised by the Ambassador Bridge.
Growing up Protestant, he was told to stay as far away from Catholics as possible, but Cartwright was not deterred and had to see the magnificent, centuries-old gothic basilica for himself.
“I don’t know how you couldn't possibly fall in love with (the Basilica of) Ste. Anne,” Cartwright told Detroit Catholic. “I became an usher right away and started getting involved with the church functions, serving and doing whatever they needed me to do. I just thought, ‘Wow, I could really see myself becoming a member of this church.’ It’s my home.”
While discerning, Cartwright would go on "prayer walks" back and forth between Ste. Anne and nearby Most Holy Trinity Parish.
"I would just walk back and forth and just pray and look for ways to serve people, and it served me so well to do that," Cartwright said.
That experience is what led Cartwright to where he found himself Sunday, March 6 — sitting with hundreds of others who had fallen in love with the Catholic Church, waiting for Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron to call them forward to profess their intent to join it as full members at Easter.
Cartwright is one of 574 people who will become full members of the Church in the Archdiocese of Detroit this Easter. He is one of 326 candidates — those who have been baptized in the Christian faith — in addition to 248 catechumens — those who have never been baptized — who took part in the ancient Rite of Election over the weekend at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
“You are here, candidates, catechumens, responding to Christ’s invitation. You have heard him invite you to receive from him his self-sacrificial love and his invitation to you to reciprocate, to be his friends, to be his beloved. This is a momentous act,” said Archbishop Vigneron, who led one of four Rite of Election celebrations over the weekend, along with Auxiliary Bishops Arturo Cepeda, Gerard W. Battersby and Donald F. Hanchon.
While sin was brought into the world through Adam, the archbishop told those gathered, the Father sent his son Jesus to heal the world of sin and to adopt his children back into his family.
"This is the meaning of the life of Jesus Christ: to reconcile the human race for the love of his Father,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “This is the meaning of your profession, your petition — you catechumens asking to be numbered among the elect, and you candidates for full communion asking to receive in fullness the sacraments that fulfill your baptism."
This profession of free choice will find its full consummation in the Holy Eucharist on Easter Sunday, the archbishop said, and will continue every Sunday thereafter.
“When the priest holds up the body of Christ, you will be part of that sacrifice; you will be offering yourself along with Jesus to the Father because today we will hear you say, 'That is who I am. I am a gift to the Father because he has given me Himself.'”
11-year-old, Madeleine Gillette from Our Lady of the Lakes in Waterford Township, looks forward to receiving the sacraments for one simple reason: "So I can be with Jesus Christ."
For others this communion allows them to finally be a part of something. Richard Harm from St. Lawrence in Utica said that while his fiancé is a huge part of why he found the Catholic Church, he is excited to go from having no faith and convictions to finally having something to believe in.
"Now I have my own beliefs, and instead of just sitting in my bed praying by myself, I now have all of this," Harm said, gesturing to the altar.
For Cartwright, this journey of self-discovery led to a realization that the Catholic faith is more than what he had been led to believe.
“I am just falling in love with the whole Catholic experience, and that is huge for me because I have always been taught otherwise,” Cartwright said. “I was just telling my sponsor that I really believe that the Catholic Church is the true church and it's the foundation of all the churches. It has its issues, but all churches have their issues, and it is to be worked out.
"I am so grateful that I didn’t allow that to deter me from getting involved and becoming part of the Catholic Church," Cartwright said. "This is a decision that is going to stick with me for a lifetime.”
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