Home Catechetical Corner Dover RCIA candidate Kiana Nemecek is eager to learn more

Dover RCIA candidate Kiana Nemecek is eager to learn more

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Kiana Nemecek will enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil at Holy Cross Church. Nemecek said she has a devotion to St. Padre Pio, whose portrait hangs in the Early Learning Center at Holy Cross. Submitted photo /Maryann McLane

DOVER — Kiana Nemecek will formally join the Catholic Church at Holy Cross in Dover at the Easter Vigil, but her journey to get to this point dates back a while and involves a lot of intellectual curiosity.

Nemecek’s introduction to Catholicism began about a year and a half ago and was not intended to lead to a spiritual conversion. The 29-year-old was curious about the faith since she really didn’t know anything about Catholics. She said while growing up in a nondenominational household, she was told that Catholics worshiped Mary and, therefore, weren’t real Christians. She wanted to know why people denigrated Catholics.

She came across the television show “The Chosen,” and actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus and is a convert to Catholicism. Roumie is an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist and is otherwise active in the church.

Nemecek saw Roumie pray the rosary and the chaplet of the Divine Mercy online and had no idea why he would do this. She said when she saw this, she would hear from the “adversary to leave him and leave this alone.”

But, she continued, she also heard from the Holy Spirit to give it another try.

“Two years later, I’m here and I’m coming into the church at the Easter Vigil,” she said. “It’s been a wonderful journey these past two years.”

A friend also introduced her to the works of Scott Hahn, a theologian and author who was once anti-Catholic before converting.

“I was really inspired by Dr. Scott and his conversion to Catholicism. After I finished reading the book, the Holy Spirit put it in my heart to join RCIA,” she said. She reached out to a friend who put her in touch with Deacon John Harvey.

There have been some aspects of Catholicism that have been a bit harder to grasp. Seeing Mary as her own mother and believing in the Immaculate Conception was one. Accepting the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ was another because she had always known it as symbolic. She also questioned the concept of saints, but learning about their individual lives has helped her understand them as well.

There are still some things she wants to learn more about, but she expects as her education continues she will have the same kind of reaction as when she tackled other subjects.

“I kind of call it my lightbulb moment. It’s like ‘A ha, that’s the truth,’” she said.

Nemecek grew up in Dover and graduated from Dover High School, but she said she didn’t know any Catholics growing up. All of her Catholic friends before entering RCIA at Holy Cross were people she met online. She said her mother is still not totally on board with her converting.

“I just leave it alone and pray for her,” she said.

Her siblings, a brother and sister, are supportive as long as Nemecek is happy. The three spend a lot of time together, sharing meals and experiences, particularly watching movies.

Nemecek works across South State Street from Holy Cross as a patient sitter at Bayhealth Hospital. She spends the overnight hours sitting with a variety of patients, including those who may be suicidal, suffering from dementia or otherwise in need of care. She keeps them company, sometimes watching television with them, reading to or talking with them, or simply watching them sleep.

Those who engage in conversation with her seem to open up to her, she said. Many just want someone to talk to. For some who have attempted or threatened suicide, she talks to them about why they survived. She is not trying to preach or convert them, and she does not judge. Nemecek simply wants them to know there is a reason they are still around.

Listening to their stories, she said, is humbling.

“Most of them just want somebody there to listen to them,” she said.

She is excited for April 16 to come around so she can be baptized, confirmed and receive Communion. She is thrilled to become part of the church that Jesus started. But she is looking at this as the beginning of a new chapter in her life.

“I know that it doesn’t end after Easter vigil. It’s something I’ve been longing for.”