Photo Caption: Wearing her baptismal robe, Michelle Neumann of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Coal Valley receives Communion at the June 3 Mass for new Catholics.

By: By Jennifer Willems

The minute she got the letter inviting her to the Mass for New Catholics at St. Mary’s Cathedral last Sunday, Michelle Neumann made a call to St. Maria Goretti Church in Coal Valley, where she had been received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, encouraged the newly baptized to wear their white robes to the celebration and it was important for her to do so.

“I was very honored and blessed to be able to have that happen,” she said. “I was so excited throughout the baptism. As an adult this was a choice I made, not a choice my parents made for me. I wanted people to know there are still people joining (the Catholic Church) by choice.”

Neumann was one of many who accepted Bishop Jenky’s invitation to join him for the Mass, which took place on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. While not all of them wore baptismal robes, the new Catholics were warmly welcomed with applause as they stood and were recognized.

“I’M HERE WITH YOU”
For some, like Neumann, it was a chance to return to the home church of the Diocese of Peoria, where they had been greeted by Bishop Jenky during the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion on the First Sunday of Lent.

“The first time I met Bishop Jenky and he shook my hand a surge went through me,” Neumann recalled. “He exudes love. It comes right out of him. It made me feel so good that I would be able to talk to him again.”

She added that it was important for her to give something back to her new spiritual family, “even if it’s just ‘I’m here with you.'”

Making the trip with her were her fiance Thomas Gengler and his parents, Dan and Jeanie Gengler. Dan and Jeanie were her godparents when she was baptized and Dan was her sponsor throughout the RCIA process at St. Maria Goretti.

“They have been a constant source of advice, a source of support,” said Neumann, who lives in East Moline. “They have been the most wonderful guiding force for me personally.”

Frank McOmber, a member of the parish’s RCIA team, also joined her at St. Mary’s Cathedral last Sunday.

William and Diane Ramsay, who were baptized, confirmed and received the Eucharist for the first time at St. Dominic’s Church in Wyoming, were also accompanied by their sponsors, Betty Banz and Mike Finnegan. Joining them was Kathy Johnson, a member of the parish staff.

Since they had not been able to attend the Rite of Election, the Ramsays made it a point to come to St. Mary’s Cathedral for this post-Easter celebration. They were awed by the worship space and the liturgy and impressed by Bishop Jenky’s “spirit” and words about the Holy Trinity.

A LOVING RELATIONSHIP
For Catholics old and new alike, Bishop Jenky’s homily was a primer on faith in the Holy Trinity, which he called “the cornerstone of Christianity.”

“Faith in three divine persons in one true God is the essential foundation of everything else we believe and know to be true about God,” he said. “For all Christian believers the one true God that we worship, the God who was fully revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, is the Trinity.”

The bishop said this confession of faith is often uttered mindlessly at the beginning of prayer as people rush through “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

What they miss is that the Trinity is essentially relational — “a community of love that shares together one divine being. This is the absolute truth that all Catholics must believe if we ever hope to share in the life of God.”

The church’s true vocation is to be that community of love, Bishop Jenky reminded his listeners.

“Like the persons of the Trinity, our distinct personal identities must always be united in a loving relationship, a holy communion of being and action,” he said. “This is what the Diocese of Peoria must always be about — a fellowship of love, service and praise.”

The Ramsays said that’s what they found at St. Dominic’s Church.

“We felt very welcomed,” Diane told The Catholic Post.

“We were hunting for a long time,” William said. “We felt like we got our answer of where we ought to be.”