USCCB - (Office of Media Relations)

April Pitches

Thousands to Join Catholic Church on Holy Saturday

Thousands of men and women will be baptized or come into full communion with the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday, April 11. "This is a key step on their faith journey and follows the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, a restored ancient tradition in our Church. The rite marks key steps on their faith journeys and the life of the Church. Through it, both the individual and the Church are changed," says Paulist Father John Hurley, the U.S. bishops' adviser on evangelization, the program to reach out to the unchurched. This addition of thousands of men and women into the Church calls for celebration among Catholics and an awareness of all of the deep desire for many in today's society to come closer to God."

Father John Hurley, CP can be reached at 202-541-3012.

Holy Saturday Start of 50 Day Celebration

"The Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening, April 11, marks the beginning of a celebration that lasts for 50 days," notes Franciscan Sister Ann Rehrauer, who advises the U.S. Bishops on liturgy. "Baptismal water, light shattering the darkness, spring blossoms, and Alleluias help us to celebrate the victory of Christ over sin and death, and our sharing in eternal life through baptism. While new Christians rejoice in their baptism, lifelong Christians rejoice with renewed hope and spirits."

Sister Ann Rehrauer, OSF can be reached at 202-541-3063.

April Marked by Holy Celebrations For Christians And Jews

April marks the major salvation feasts for both Jews and Christians. "Passover (April 11-18) commemorates God's startling victory over Egypt and Israel's journey to the Promised Land," says Franciscan Sister Ann Rehrauer. "For Christians, Easter (April 12) celebrates Christ's victory over sin and death, and the gift of eternal life. For both religious communities, the feasts recall God's marvelous deeds of the past but celebrate God's abiding love and continuing action in their own. lives."

Sister Ann Rehrauer, OSF can be reached at 202-541-3063.

Holocaust Remembrance Vital to All Religions

People of all religions have reason to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom Hashoah, which will be marked April 23. "The deaths of the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis must be mourned; their loss to the world is incalculable," notes Father John Hotchkin, the head of the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. "That massacre would be reason enough to remember them. Still, there is a further compelling need to do so. The chillingly systematic effort to exterminate an entire people, not for what they had done nor for any threat they posed, but simply for being who they were -- whether young or old; every last man, woman and child --- is an attempt at evil on a nearly unimaginable scale. To see how far this attempt progressed, how close it came to nearly entirely achieving its aim (over two-thirds of the Jews of Europe perished), is to witness a clear assault on faith which trusts in a God who cares and also a brutal taunting of our hope for humanity when humans reveal their capacity to turn so ugly and sink so low against their own kind. The Shoah raises in a most awful way the darkest questions the mystery of evil puts to the world in our time. We may never get to the bottom of these, probably not. Not only must we not seek to explain this evil away, we must accept the fact that even when factors contributing to it are accounted for, in the final analysis we shall still never truly explain it. For something this evil there is in the end no explanation. It remains a dark mystery, ever threatening. But what we cannot explain, we must remember. The warning contained in the memory is our best common shield and defense. The evil that turns human beings against humanity, cheapening its life, bent on its destruction, still lurks in the world and has revealed itself elsewhere since the Nazi Holocaust, though not yet with the same cold, modern, technical ruthlessness. It does not rest, and neither must we in our remembering. By remembering the unspeakable horror that in fact did happen, we remain awake to what can happen or be attempted again. It is through our common remembrance of them that those who perished shield the living."