I began this Easter season at the vigil Mass at a Catholic parish in Northern Virginia that was not my own. I was at another church because I was the confirmation sponsor for a dear friend from college who was entering the Catholic Church after a 47-year spiritual journey that included a nominal Protestant upbringing, a marriage in an Episcopal church, and a decade as a serious Lutheran.

My friend was one of 31 who became Catholic at that Mass, including plenty of newly baptized Christians, Protestants becoming Catholic, and cradle Catholics whose Catholic formation stopped after baptism.