About 1,000 people are in the process of being catechized on the Catholic faith, and are expected to be baptized at the Paschal Vigil next month in the Archdiocese of Singapore.
Newsroom (26/03/2025 16:44, Gaudium Press) According to a report released by the archdiocese’s news website, at least 842 catechumens and 165 candidates participated earlier this month in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, a ceremony that accepts their readiness for Baptism.
As a guarantee of fidelity, the catechumens write their names in a book that lists those who have been chosen for initiation at Easter.
Normally held on the first Sunday of Lent, the catechumens – unbaptized people – are formally elected by the Church, acting in God’s name, to receive the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.
At this Mass, the candidates – those who were baptized in another Christian tradition – are received into full communion with the Catholic Church.
Cardinal William Goh, who presided over both events, was joined at the altar by priests representing their parishes from across the Archdiocese.
Cardinal Goh urged the catechumens to make their faith personal: “The Creed of the Church, the set of beliefs by which the community lives, must become your personal conviction”.
One of the catechumens, Queenie Ng, 42, said that she first believed in Christ when she was 20 and occasionally attended various Protestant churches.
“I wasn’t baptized and I didn’t walk very close to God either,” she said.
Six years ago, Ng left her corporate job to work in the morgue. A year later, the Saint Joseph Dying Aid Association, an organization that provides Catholic funeral services, hired her to help with the embalming work.
Although the funeral sector is profit-driven, “the Catholics I met at the Association were easily satisfied… They serve not for the money, and I wanted to be like them”.
In July, she signed up to become a catechumen at one of the more than 30 parishes or centers in the archdiocese that offer the training.
Another person preparing for initiation is Naresh Mahtani, a 69-year-old lawyer who describes himself as a “former freethinker”.
Although he was introduced to Christ as a teenager and accepted Jesus Christ as his “hero”, he “couldn’t accept how the Church historically engaged in persecution”. He rarely accompanied his wife of 44 years, a practicing Catholic, to Sunday Mass.
However, professional and financial difficulties led him to have “serious conversations with God”, which slowly convinced him to accept the faith.
“I felt He was telling me to go into the Church and learn about Her, instead of throwing stones outside,” he said, adding that he felt the Holy Spirit encouraging him to take part in the course. Last July, Mahtani enrolled as a catechumen.
A total of 966 catechumens and 172 candidates are expected to be received into full communion with the Church this Easter.
Catholics in Singapore are estimated at 395,000, with a population of around 5.9 million.
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
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