United by faith:
Family members journey together into the Church
Father Christopher Craig, pastor of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Aurora, baptizes Molly Schmahl during the parish’s Easter Vigil on April 7. Molly’s parents, Kurt and April Schmahl, and her younger brother, Noah, look on. Kurt, Noah, and two of Molly’s older sisters were also received into the Church during the liturgy. (Submitted photo)
By Sean Gallagher
In the Church’s earliest days, the family was called the ecclesiola, the “little Church.” Spiritual writers through the ages have recognized that it is within the family that the seeds of faith are planted, bloom and nurtured toward maturity.
That is still the case today as some of the archdiocese’s newest Catholics recognized God’s invitation to come into the full communion of the Church came through their loved ones.
The following are the stories of people of all ages who became Catholic during the Easter Vigil on April 7 in parishes across the archdiocese through the grace that came into their lives through their relatives.
In the process, they learned that God was welcoming them into a larger family, his own family, a
family of faith.
‘I think it brings us closer’
When she married her husband, Kurt, 27 years ago, April Schmahl of Aurora began to move away from the Catholic faith in which she had been raised.
At different periods early on in their marriage, the couple belonged to Lutheran and Methodist congregations.
Later, they simply stopped going to church altogether.
But a couple of years ago, April, a mother of nine children, noticed something was missing in her life.
“I was unhappy,” she said. “I was looking for something that I just kind of lost contact with, I suppose you could say.”
She started going to Mass at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Aurora.
In seeing his wife become
re-acquainted with the faith of her childhood, Kurt reconsidered his spiritual responsibility to his younger children.
“One of the biggest regrets that we have with our children is that we did a lot of bouncing around to different Churches,” said Kurt, who was raised in the Lutheran faith. “They really didn’t have a foundation, I guess you could say.”
Kurt, April and their younger children started attending Mass together and appreciated the welcome they received from members of St. Mary Parish.
“We had such positive feedback, and a lot of people were always coming up and talking to us,” April said. “That was a great incentive for them.”
Starting last fall, Kurt, his 17-year-old daughter, Abbey, and his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, began their participation in St. Mary’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program, while his 11-year-old daughter, Molly, and his 6-year-old son, Noah, learned about the faith in a manner befitting their ages.
Hannah was so taken by the spiritual journey that she and her family had embarked on that she asked and received permission from her parents to complete eighth-grade at the parish’s school. She enrolled there a couple of weeks after the academic year began last fall.
Molly and Noah will be students at the school next year.
Hannah has come to value the role that the Catholic faith is now playing in the life of her family.
“I think it brings us closer,” she said. “We can talk about it more and relate with each other. We realize how lucky we are.”
The power of a funeral
This Easter saw another Batesville Deanery parish welcome a family into the Church.
Husband and wife Brian and Susie Percell were baptized, confirmed and received their first Communion at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Shelby County at the parish’s Easter Vigil on April 7.
Their journey to that special night started when Susie, 50, attended the funeral of Polly La Barbara, the grandmother of one her cousins.
Although not a blood relation, Susie had known La Barbara, a lifelong Catholic, all her life.
“She was family,” Susie said.
During the funeral at St. Joseph Church in Shelbyville, Susie was struck by the rituals that honored La Barbara’s life and death.
“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Susie said. “I can’t even explain what happened. I just had a feeling come all over me, and I was crying so hard.”
After that, she began learning about the Catholic faith by reading material on the Internet and watching the Eternal Word Television Network.
Susie and Brian eventually started going to Mass at St. Vincent de Paul Church. And although they had worshipped in the past at Baptist, Methodist and non-denominational Churches, there was a difference at St. Vincent de Paul Church for Susie.
“Every time I walk in that church, I feel like God is there,” Susie said. “Sometimes I get so emotional during the [Mass] that I really have to hold back the tears.”
Susie and Brian began their participation in St. Vincent’s RCIA program last fall. Since then, Brian has noticed positive changes in his life, especially in the workplace.
As a result of this, Brian and Susie’s life together is also happier.
“We’re not snapping at each other because we’re both less stressed out from our jobs,” he said.
In addition to drawing Brian and Susie closer together, their journey of faith has also bonded them to the faithful at St. Vincent Parish.
“They are so nice,” Susie said. “They are the nicest bunch of people that I’ve ever been around. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
And a little child shall lead them
Parents can have a significant impact upon the life of faith of their children.
But sometimes the reverse can happen.
When Eric West enrolled as a kindergartner at Holy Name School in Beech Grove last year, no one in his family was Catholic.
But as he learned about the Catholic faith and went regularly to Mass, he started having an impact upon his mother, Katie, and his grandmother, Sue West.
Both entered into Holy Name of Jesus Parish’s RCIA program last fall to learn more about the faith that was being shared with Eric at school. And the more they learned, the more they wanted to embrace that faith themselves.
Katie and Sue were both received into the full communion of the Church on April 7 at Holy Name of Jesus Church.
Katie’s parents divorced when she was young, and she said that she was never close to her own mother.
Her relationship with Sue, on the other hand, has always been close. The spiritual journey they took together only made that bond stronger.
“It’s just brought us closer,” Katie said. “I feel like she could be my real mom.”
Sue especially appreciates the special role her grandson played in bringing her and her daughter-in-law into the Church.
“I think that’s a special thing because through him we were able to grow,” she said. “He’d come home and tell us what he learned, and what he did in church. It just made us want to go with him.”
Eric is expected to be baptized when he is in the first grade.
Sharing in Christ’s suffering
On July 20, 2005, mother and daughter Debbie and Michelle Williams of New Albany entered into a trial that brought them to their knees.
On that day, Debbie’s husband, William, fell in a work-related accident into a vat of oil that was heated to 180 degrees. After spending 10 to 12 minutes in the vat and finally being rescued, he had severe burns over more than 80 percent of his body.
Debbie and Michelle were told by doctors at the University of Louisville Hospital that their husband and father would probably not survive.
But survive he did. He was discharged two days before Christmas.
During this long ordeal, a priest chaplain at the hospital provided spiritual support to Debbie and Michelle, who were not active in any faith tradition at the time.
“[He] prayed with us and helped us through that spell, and just let us know that we had a miracle,” Debbie said.
The trial of William’s accident and long recovery planted a desire in Debbie and Michelle to draw closer to God.
They eventually came to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New Albany and participated in its RCIA program that began last fall.
“We felt really welcomed,” Michelle said, “and everything that we learned was so interesting, and every day you learned something new.”
Learning more about the Catholic faith together strengthened the bond between the mother and daughter.
“It has brought us a lot closer together,” Michelle said. “We kind of became best friends [through this].”
Debbie was especially drawn to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and its connection to his suffering and death.
“He is uniting with you,” Debbie said. “We know what he suffered because we suffered also.” †