EASTON, Md. — Several seniors from Saints Peter and Paul High School will have more in common than an alma mater in the near future. Five boys and one young lady will have entered the Catholic Church or received all of their sacraments of initiation this spring. Four of them will be getting those sacraments at the Easter vigil, all at the parish church on the same campus as their school. Two were confirmed recently by Bishop Koenig.
They might be in different stages of their faith process but have gone through the preparation together.
Reed Frankos and Avery McCall were the two who were confirmed by the bishop. Four — Langdon Anderson, Drake Stolba, Finn Loveless and Jacob Rardin, known as J.J. — will be baptized, confirmed and receive First Communion at the Easter Vigil on April 4. And Alan Hinduja will be confirmed and receive communion at the vigil.
Four of the students shared their stories with The Dialog recently.
Stolba lives in Cambridge, Md., and is not Catholic, but he has been at Saints Peter and Paul since first grade. He has always found the school community to be “inviting” and has made many friends through school and lacrosse.
Stolba said although many of his friends attended Catholic church regularly, he never attended with them. That changed in high school.
“I guess I didn’t really have a religion,” he said. “It started mostly when I got into the high school, and I started going to church. I felt a bond with God. I felt I need to be baptized, I need to keep on practicing this because it feels right and welcoming.”
Last summer, he decided to formally convert. He, like the other three, has done his prep at Saints Peter and Paul Parish.
“It’s been awesome. I’m with my close friends, so to be able to do it with them has been a lot of fun,” he said.
Stolba said he uses the lessons he has learned in his everyday life, and he looks to God as an example of what he should do in many situations. He said going to RCIA classes has strengthened his faith, and he keeps learning something new.
He lives with his mother in Cambridge; his father lives in Delaware. Stolba said his mother is not Catholic, but he believes he has helped strengthen her faith. She is not joining the church yet, but her son is keeping the faith that he will be there for that in the future. Stolba will attend Florida Southern College and play lacrosse while studying biology. He wants to be a physician. He injured a knee last year playing lacrosse but hopes to return by the end of the current high school season.
Loveless lives in Easton and has not received any of the sacraments. He said he used to attend church occasionally with his mother, but their attendance fell off when he was in middle school. He began to go back to church once he reached high school because of his friends’ connections. They were an influence, as was Saints Peter and Paul’s campus minister Phil Cheung.
The deciding point for Loveless to formally join the church occurred a year ago.
“My cousin and a lot of my friends got confirmed last year, and I went to the Easter vigil Mass to see them get confirmed, so that was basically the turning point in my faith to decide to become Catholic as well,” he said.
His mother decided last year to start attending church again as well, and now she and her son attend with his grandmother, who is “very thrilled,” Loveless said. “She’s always been a participating Catholic. She’s happy to see my mom back in it as well.”
He said he is most excited about getting baptized because it marks the beginning of his journey as a Catholic.
At Saints Peter and Paul, Loveless said he has learned a lot of the technical aspects of Catholicism, but also about having a personal relationship with God “and how that affects my relationship and how I see everything in life.”
He is a member of several clubs at Saints Peter and Paul, and he played soccer and will play tennis this spring. He has not decided yet where he will attend college.
Frankos, who also lives in Easton, was baptized and received his First Communion as a cradle Catholic, but he was never confirmed. He said his family used to go to church regularly, but as his involvement with club lacrosse increased, he had to travel for practice on Sunday mornings.
“We just never had time to go to church, and after a while of that, it just kind of died down and we stopped going,” Frankos said. “I never rejected the faith.”
He has been at Saints Peter and Paul for elementary and high school, and he said he has always observed how his teachers talked about God. Cheung also had a big influence on him.
“The way he talks about it and preaches, it kind of makes you look into the deeper meaning of the word, and I guess it sparked in me, not a new faith, but a new understanding,” Frankos said.
He has been attending Mass on Saturday nights as much as possible.
Frankos is a captain of the golf team, and he is also involved with the Key Club, investment club, outdoor adventure club and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He will attend the University of Alabama and will study finance, perhaps with a minor in real estate.
The fourth member of the quartet, Hinduja, was baptized Catholic as an infant, but he never received First Communion and has not been confirmed. He has been at Saints Peter and Paul since sixth grade.
“I ended up loving it here,” he said.
Hinduja, who lives in Trappe, Md., said it was his decision to join with the encouragement of Cheung.
“He kind of motivated me to join the church and build a relationship with God. This year, with it being my senior year, I thought it would be the perfect time to do it,” he said.
During his preparation, God’s forgiveness has stuck out to him the most.
“He’s always there,” Hinduja said. “All we have to do is come to him, and he’ll take us.”
Hinduja said his mother is Catholic, and his father is Hindu. They never forced a religion on their children. When Hinduja decided to become Catholic, both parents were happy. He is also excited to join the faith.
“I’m really grateful for the whole journey and everything I’ve learned along the way. It’s going to be a great experience,” he said.
Hinduja, like Frankos, will be heading to Alabama for college. The two friends will not see eye to eye on everything, however, as Hinduja will be at Bama’s archrival, Auburn, where he will study business.
