Gallup, N.M., Jan 26, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- With their children getting older, the Aguilars wanted to find a church home for their family. They visited a few Christian churches close to home, but nothing felt right. They were surprised, the couple said, to find that Catholic Church – the Church of their youth – was the place where they realized they were at home.
Michelle and Andres Aguilar decided to reenter the Catholic Church in 2019, finishing Michelle’s confirmation process and validating their marriage in the Church.
The couple now attends St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Bloomfield, New Mexico, which is pastored by Fr. Josh Mayer. Michelle, 38, owns the oilfield company Ernie’s Pilot Service, and Andres, 33, works as a parole officer.
Michelle was confirmed by Bishop James Wall of Gallup last Easter. She told CNA that the Easter Mass, where her two children also received their first communion, was one of the most beautiful experiences of her life.
“Last April, we all made our sacraments together. I tell everybody that aside from my marriage and my kids’ births, that was the best day of my life. I felt so much joy and it was at the Easter vigil. We [got] home [at] like one in the morning and I could not sleep. I was just so excited from it,” she said.
Michelle and Andres were both baptized and raised in the Church. Michelle attended Mass and catechetical classes with her aunt, but she fell away during her teenage years once her aunt became too busy to take her to Mass. Andres told CNA that he began distancing himself from the Church when he was in his 20s, after a priest who gave a disappointing homily with a judgmental and unkind attitude at his cousin’s funeral.
“The priest at the time made a comment during her funeral. It just kind of shut me out,” he said. “She was murdered … the comment he made was, had she not been living the lifestyle [she] was living, she wouldn’t have died. It was like I saw him almost condemn her in the Church.”
“I didn’t want to be a part of something group that would condemn people,” he further added.
The couple was civilly married in 2008, three years after their son Augustine was born and a few months after their daughter Cheyann was born – both of whom were baptized in the Catholic Church.
The Aguilars said the family was a major reason for their desire to return to the faith, but they had tried several other denominations before finding themselves in the Catholic Church.
“We wanted to get back into church,” she said. “So we kind of tried different religions. We tried Baptist, we tried Pentecostal, we tried a nondenominational [church]. We just never really liked any of them. It didn’t feel like church.”
“Other denominations, it is beautiful there, but they don’t have structure, and I need that. I need structure and tradition. … It is so beautiful to see even the older ladies in Mass and it just reminds me of family,” she further added.
Not having found anything that fit, the family took a break from their search. Meanwhile, Augustine started attending Mass with Michelle’s father, who would often have Augustine stay over at his house on Saturday night before Mass. She said, seeing that, she wanted to start attending Mass again as a family.
“I kind of wanted to start going as a family and I spoke to my husband about it and then we decided that we would go,” she said. “We started a friendship with a family here [Adam and Desiraye Benavidez]. They’re really devout and we liked how they put [the faith] first. So we started talking and we decided to join them.”
Andres said the Benavidezs were a big motivator for his rejoining the Church too. He said Adam is a powerful example of a good Catholic father. He said the family possessed a peace and joy he wanted for his own family.
“They have this tradition where they, after mass, all eat breakfast, and I just saw happiness in them,” he said “It just made me want that for my family as well. He owns that peace, like you can’t bring that man down. I think his faith has a lot to do with it, and being a part of the church I think really helps him be who he is as a person.”
He said, while he still disagrees with some of the things the priest said at the funeral, he has come to better understand the need to forgive and forget.
“This priest is a human and he sins just as much as I do. He made a mistake. That’s the beauty of the church and reconciliation is that you can ask for forgiveness and start fresh.”
Michelle emphasized the important role of the RCIA classes. She said the group watched videos from the Augustine Institute and analyzed scripture prior to the Sunday Mass. She expressed a love for the group, especially Deacon Pat Valdez, who heads the parish’s RCIA class.
“I miss them since I’ve made my confirmation. I really miss them because it was so fulfilling. I learned so much,” she said.
“[Deacon] would give us the scriptures for the next week and he would break that down. So it was really neat to hear it there, and then on Sunday we’d go and hear it again.”
She said her decision to reenter the Church was verified during the first RCIA class. On the first day, she said, the deacon answered most of the questions she was struggling with, namely the Sacrament of Penance and prayers to the saints.
“I struggled with those growing up. I didn’t understand why we were doing that. [During] my first RCIA class, [Deacon Pat] answered both of those without me even asking the question. That was what he talked about. And I was like, okay, this is where I’m supposed to be,” she said.
Both of them described how faith has inspired meaningful interactions with their children, especially for their son who is 15 years old. Michelle said, through the use of the Catechism, she has been able to engage the children in learning, such as looking up answers to moral questions.
“It’s been really helpful in those aspects like discipline,” she said. [My son] had messed up and he felt really bad and I could tell it was weighing heavy on him. … [so] he went to confession.”
“We went together and I could just tell when he got out, he felt a relief and I got to explain that to him that you can mess up but you need to ask for forgiveness and then try your best not to make the same mistakes.”
Andres said the faith has given him more patience. He also said that faith has improved communication with Augustine and given him a better perspective on what it means to be a parent.
“Sometimes I can [be] pretty hot-headed and I can be a little strict with the kids, but at the same time I’m learning that being a parent is important in God’s eyes,” he said.
“I feel like it’s my job now to make sure that my kids have that happiness and the peace that they can find with the Lord and through the church. I feel like I shouldn’t deprive them of that anymore.”
[…]
Mass of reparation….have fr rippinger back [he was just there] to exercise the building and rededicate it…and remove the faculties of the priest…[who may need an exorcism himself…]
There are reports that the Mass of Reparation does reconsecrate the cathedral, despite the official statement from its pastor not making that clear. Example: this story at The Postmillennial:
NYC Cathedral offers official Mass of Reparation to reconsecrate St Patrick’s after outcry over trans activist funeral
Yes! That would be a fantastic move!
Now will the Archdiocese rewrite its policies, which seem to allow congregants to take control of liturgies, so that such a scandal cannot reoccur?
As long as eulogizing is allowed at a funeral, rather than being limited to a non-church wake where it belongs, we’ll see such scandals continuing. This one is only more egregious than what is common.
In our parish you/someone in family have/has to generally be a member for a funeral; there’s quite a few where there’s a service at the funeral home/graveside if they’ve fallen away. A priest or deacon usually presides.
Is this somehow following the recent ‘blessings are okay’ directive?
Why does the secular world want to use our facilities for such strange events or videotaping for “artists” that also happened recently?
The decision to do this outrageous blasphemy was given permission for Dolan, he should resign immediately! But this just shows how diabolical the LGBTQ crowd are! They want things like this to show contempt to the Church and her Sacraments, since they are totally dedicated to the world, the flesh and the devil!!!
Doesn’t the priest or the funeral home, presumably in accord with the parish, meet with the family to plan the funeral – the visitation, the procession, the readings, the hymns, etc.?
Was this person a parishioner? Can anybody just walk in off the street and demand a “celebration of life”?
Rev. Salvo says that they “didn’t know” what these people had planned.
I for one DON’T believe that, and, if it IS true – there is NO excuse for their ignorance.
You cannot “request “a funeral mass. Money has to change hands. How much did it cost to sell catholic values?????
Who paid? Who accepted the payment without proper vetting?
Deep connections have to be involved.
A “sorry” mass cannot be the end of it!
I imagine that Cardinal Dolan himself approved the service in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Perhaps he thought that it would be more “normal” than it turned out? Well, I think that he must be embarrassed about the whole thing now. Does he owe an apology to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York? It might be wise to do so.
Fr. Edward is the culprit who encouraged, profane, and participated in the sacrilegious mass. He was the celebrant, leader, and shepherd leading all these folks into grave egregious mortal sin. Father Edward Dougherty must be admonished appropriately to his actions.
Or was this clandestinely approved by the Vatican for a fellow countrymen from Argentina?
Are the “wild beasts” located in the Vatican?
Tragic and unnecessary failure to protect the faithful
Matthew 23:9-11 KJV And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Incredibly irreverent. Somebody of note took payment for this charade, without regard to what planned intentions were.
Why didn’t the celebrant of the funeral mass put a stop to it when he saw what was happening?? And why has Cardinal Dolan not made a public statement and apology to Catholics in the US? It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remain a faithful Catholic in light of what’s been going on since Covid. The church did nothing and continues to marginalize the faithful while applauding the radicals.
I read elsewhere that where as the original plan was for a mass, during the “celebration” the director of liturgy saw what was going on and informed the presiding priest to limit it to a simple service instead of a mass. I hope that was the case. Inappropriate regardless.
I cannot understand how this was allowed to continue throughout its entirety. This should have been stopped at the first mention or sight of anything subversive. Throughout all of these videos I kept wondering the same thing, ‘why is the presiding authority not demanding cessation and those taking part out of the church?’ Let us all pray for the intercession of the saints of the past who fought heresy without fear and stood face to face against those who persecuted them. Mother Mary, pray for us!
It’s important to note that this sacrilege is the direct result of Bergoglio’s apostatic directive, ‘Sfiducia Supplicans.’
I fear we have a pope who is in the service of an unholy spirit.
We read: “’At [Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s] directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,’ Salvo said. [AND] Several mainstream media outlets had framed the event as a breakthrough occasion and a sign of the Catholic Church shifting its teaching — or at least its tone — on sexuality and human anthropology.”
Reparation after the fact? What about foresight and guardianship?
Yours truly recalls a high cleric from New York who confided (on EWTN) about endorsing Obama Care only to find six months later that the conscientious objection clause had been deleted. “They lied to me,” he said. Of course!!! Why is it that pious clerics are the last to notice in advance the web of mendacity in a fallen world?
Happily, about “tone,” we now see what we need from continental Africa and and many other points of surviving coherence across the globe, but from the inner circle what do we still get: a “tone” that is out of tune, a “blessing” that is not a blessing, a “couple” that is not a couple, a doctrinally “universal Church” that in practice is not universal, and likely endorsement from a “synod” that is not a synod…
Instead, this: “When Jesus sent His disciples out into the world which was full of the ambushes of evil, He told them, ‘Be ye therefore, wise as serpents and simple as doves’ (Mt 10:16). By mentioning the two virtues, prudence and simplicity, together, He clearly shows that they must never be separated from one another, nor should one be used as a pretext for failing in the other” (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, “Divine Intimacy,” 1964/1996).
Given the insidiousness of evil and even infiltration into the Church, needed training for bishops might well include a seminar on Mt. 10:16 and counterinsurgency.
CARDINAL DOLAN MUST MAKE A PUBLIC STATEMENT OIF REPENTANCE AND RECOMMITMENT