Shawn Pourifarsi, 20, remembers sitting in his dorm room last year at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and feeling lost.
“I had a lack of worth,” Pourifarsi said. “I felt I was missing something in my life.”
Raised with a belief in God but without strong religious ties, he occasionally attended church with a Catholic friend.
“I thought I would go to Mass to see what happens,” Pourifarsi said. “I felt so invited. It gave me something to look forward to. It gave me a lot of hope.”
Pourifarsi joined UMBC’s Catholic Retrievers as a freshman and began Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) sessions his sophomore year. Now, he and eight others are preparing to enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil.
“Nine people – that’s more than a lot of parishes,” said Father Matthew Himes, chaplain of the group and associate vocations director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “College is such a pivotal moment in their life. They’re seeking answers to questions and finding answers in the church.”
Last year, the Catholic Retrievers had five students join the Catholic Church, Father Himes said, and the year before that, one. He noted that of the nine joining the church this year, five of them, like Pourifarsi, are catechumens – meaning they have not been baptized and need all the sacraments of initiation – and four are candidates, meaning they had been baptized but have not received all the sacraments of initiation.
Towson University has five students joining the church, according to Brian Rhude, campus minister at Towson University Newman Center. At Mount St. Mary’s University, Krysti Patient, director of campus ministry, center for campus ministry, said 17 students will join the church – five catechumens and 12 candidates. Last year, the school had 10 and the year prior to that, eight, she said. Loyola University Maryland reported 10 coming into the church, four catechumens and six candidates.
“It is an upward trend for us,” Patient said, who also leads Mount St. Mary’s OCIA sessions. “I have seen them form great relationships.”
“Our ministry is growing like crazy,” said Joe Anderson, who leads the weekly UMBC Sunday afternoon OCIA sessions, a requirement for those entering the Catholic faith. On the first Sunday in March, he was preparing the class for the Rite of Election of Catechumens and the Calling the Candidates to Continued Conversion liturgy March 9. The group, he noted, was excited and nervous.
“I would really like everyone just to relax,” he said before explaining the process of events for the rite to the nine and their sponsors. “The good news is you don’t have to say anything.”
He also informed them that they still had time to back out if they had doubts about the Catholic faith. No one did.
“I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t found God,” said Brandon Jacobs, 19, of Burtonsville. “I need purpose. As humans, it is what we crave.”
Jacobs, a freshman at UMBC, wasn’t satisfied with his life before he picked up the Bible a little over a year ago and started reading it. His journey, he admits, “has taken a lot of work.”
“Nothing is easy,” Jacobs said. “I found God. I started feeling good again. I have peace. I have joy serving God best of all.”
Coming into the Catholic Church this year is especially meaningful for Jacobs because his twin brother, Nic Jacobs, is also going through OCIA at Towson University, where he is a student.
“We are going to be baptized together, that is really special,” Brandon Jacobs said.
Since arriving at the UMBC campus three years ago, Father Himes has seen the Catholic Retrievers grow steadily in numbers. Where once 25 people attended Sunday Mass, now about 100 people do, he said, and the group has a roster/email list of about 300 students.
“We focus on hospitality and community as our main pillars of the ministry here,” Father Himes said. “People come seeking answers to questions. They are finding answers in the church.”
People are looking to join, said Michael Hauf, a UMBC Catholic Retrievers senior. “We are able to minister to these people who don’t know the Catholic faith.”
A “cradle Catholic,” Hauf was asked by Father Himes to be a student leader of the OCIA group.
Young adults often struggle to feel welcome in parishes with few peers. At Mount St. Mary’s, Patient helps them form a plan of life by finding local parishes, marking holy days and exploring volunteer opportunities to “find their people and put down roots in their parish” after college. She stays connected with graduates for support.
At UMBC, Father Himes encourages students to build relationships and community in their parishes.
“We don’t have a building or place attached to the program,” he said of the Catholic Retrievers, which holds Mass in a physics lecture hall. “As a result of that experience, they know it is possible to build a community, build friendships.”
At the Rite of Election at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen March 9, Sebastian Zamora couldn’t stop smiling.
“It was very inspiring to see so many people here, so many young people,” said Zamora, a UMBC candidate. “You feel you are not alone.”
Hundreds prepare to be received into the Catholic Church
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org
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