'It Felt Like Coming Home'

Over the weekend, dozens of USD students and staff were welcomed into the Catholic Church, the culmination of a year-long program and, for some, a decades-long spiritual journey. 

Participants were baptized, confirmed and took their first communion as full members of the Church. It was an event put on by University Ministry’s Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) program, which helps prepare people for the Sacraments and develop a deeper relationship with God. Hundreds of people were in attendance. Archbishop Michael Pham offered his homily and USD President James T. Harris III, DEd, served as a eucharistic minister, all while participants’ family and friends watched their loved ones take the exciting step.

“It’s a touching moment. I’m witnessing a moment for someone that hopefully they can return to to remember who they are, particularly when life gets a little rough, or particularly when there's something joyful that they can come back to understand their baptism,” said Christian Santa Maria, director of University Ministry. “So for me, it's moving, because I get to witness something that someone will probably revisit throughout their life. That happened here at Founders Chapel.”

Santa Maria has worked in USD’s University Ministry office for years. He said when he started, a handful of people would take part in Sunday’s Sacraments. This year, there were nearly 50.

People come to the Church at different times of their lives for different reasons, Santa Maria said. Some people want to get married in the Church, some are starting a family and want to raise their children in the faith. Many of them have big questions about existence or spirituality, and they look to religion.

This is reflective of recent trends nationally, with The New York Times recently reporting on an influx of new members to the Catholic Church. 

OCIA at USD provides people an avenue to become full members of the Catholic Community, and ask questions to learn more about faith, the Church and themselves. And the program gives them a way to pursue these interests through the university, where they have a built in community, and a place where they feel welcome and comfortable.

Nicolas Estrada ’11 (BA), associate university minister for liturgy, teaches the OCIA courses, and is an alumni himself.

“We have something very special at USD. It’s a place where we have contemporary Catholic faith being lived out in real ways. Our community is very vibrant,” he said. “(Working with OCIA) is probably the greatest honor of my professional and ministerial life. I get to work with these students, I get to share our faith and I get to do it in a place that is so meaningful for so many people.”

Estrada is grateful for his place in the process, and the feeling is mutual. OCIA students endearingly refer to him as Nico, and say he plays a key role in the community and their journey.  Kaitlyn Connolly, a JD candidate, came to the program with a yearning for answers and to become part of the Church, but also with some insecurities about her beliefs. Nico, she said, helped create a welcoming environment, and helped her work through her own thoughts and feelings, strengthening her faith.

“He broke down a lot of the barriers to really get to the root of any insecurities that I had about whether I truly believed in God. I’m someone that’s struggled with that for 25 years,” Connolley said. “In any other class, you might feel like you’re attending a lecture. With Nico, it just felt like a conversation. … It made it so much easier to let myself believe and to hold on.”

Kaitlyn was one of the participants Sunday who took part in all of the Sacraments. She was joined by her boyfriend and friends, and godparents. Going through the OCIA program prepared her, helping her learn more about herself and her faith, but in some ways she was pleasantly surprised by the experience at Mass.

“I was told it would feel this way, and I laughed, but it did,” she said. “It felt like coming home.”