Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion with Bishop Thomas Daly

Those adults, young teens, and children, who wish to be baptized or received until full communion in the Catholic Church this Easter, along with their godparents and sponsors will celebrate the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, with Bishop Thomas Daly presiding.  The Rite of Election marks the participants’ desire to become Catholic and begins a final period of intense spiritual preparation called Purification and Enlightenment, where the elect join Catholics around the world in the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and service to others. During the Rite of Election, godparents for the non-Christians, or catechumens, vow that the catechumens are prepared for baptism. After asking the catechumens if this is what they desire, they are declared “the elect,” who have been chosen by God to enter the Church. Similarly, the rite will formally recognize the readiness of those already-baptized Christians, or candidates, to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church.