Welcome to the Catholic Church - Part III

Dear Parish Family,

We continue this week’s Sharing Spot with another introduction to the women and men who will become fully initiated Catholics for the first time at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night, April 16, at 8 PM at St. Mary’s Church. Today we meet another two of our catechumens, who come as a pair, and are following in the footsteps of a baby.

The baby who is leading the way is Henry Cieply, who was baptized a Catholic even though his parents, Arthur and Annieke Cieply were not Catholics themselves.

Arthur and Annieke met their senior year of high school in Hudson Falls. Arthur is from a large Hudson Falls family, while Annieke’s family is relatively new to town. The Potgieters moved to Washington County from South Africa in 2011. How cool and exotic is that?!?

Both of them are captivated by the Catholic faith; it feels to them both that they are coming home by receiving the sacraments of initiation.

Arthur says that the reason he feels drawn to the faith begins by taking a good look at “the clear, historical evidence about the Catholicity of the early Church.” No other church is as rooted in the practices of the early Christian community gathering during the time of St. Paul and the Roman persecutions than the Catholic Church.

Annieke says she loves the “beauty, richness and depth of the faith.” She says that has come to see the Catholic Church as the “one True Church.”

Arthur’s younger brother Robert couldn’t agree more. He joined the Church through the RCIA process just last year, in 2021.

Henry, on the other hand, is the epitome of a “cradle Catholic.” ☺ How wonderful that this little child, who comes weekly to either the 8:30 a.m. or 11:15 a.m. Sunday Mass, has led the way for his parents into the Church we all treasure so much.

Henry and Robert will gather with our whole community to witness the Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist of Annieke, Arthur, and the rest of this year’s initiants at the Easter Vigil on April 16 at 8 p.m. We hope you’ll come join us witness these remarkable moments of homecoming.

Faithfully yours,

Father Scott