Catholic program helps people reconnect with faith, church

Trembling but determined, the young woman summoned all her confidence and walked through the doors.

Nervous, on the defensive and scared but with her son's future at the forefront of her mind, Yadira Rivera Vargas -- she's better known as Yade -- opened those doors and was ready to face the music. As a divorced mother who had drifted, she expected to feel disgrace when she entered St. Hubert Roman Catholic Church in Hoffman Estates.

Instead, she was welcomed.

It was the spiritual future of her son Alex, the fact he had not yet made his first communion or his confirmation in the Catholic Church she loved but left, that propelled her to march through those doors to attend a six-week series known as "Catholics Returning Home."

Teen years are difficult enough, but in a single-family home when a mom needs to be at the forefront of her son's formation, Vargas said she summoned the courage to take that first step, one she hesitated to tread because folks at two other parishes referred to her divorced state of life, she said.

With only the clothes on her back and her 3-year-old child in tow, the newly divorced Vargas left Texas eight years ago to move into her parents' Northwest suburban home.

Now a resident of Hoffman Estates, she recalled the first two efforts she made at returning to the church and faith in which she was nurtured.

"They referred to me as the divorced one and I didn't feel welcome," Vargas, 41, explained. "I left Texas as a divorced woman with no money, no possessions, no job and only the clothes on my back. It wasn't an easy decision but a necessary one."

Vargas said her falling away from attendance at Mass came gradually as she just "went along" with her spouse's decision to not attend.

Now a member of St. Hubert with aspirations to be active as a volunteer, Vargas said she didn't find judgments leveled at her and she didn't get pressure to return from the team that coordinates the Catholics Returning Home series, authored by Sally Mews.

"It changed my life just because I showed up and the people on the team who welcomed me weren't hypocrites," Vargas said. "The were just glad that my son and I were there. I remember that the first thing I said was that I was divorced and no one commented. I waited for it but no one condemned me."

Alex made his first communion and confirmation at the Easter Vigil service last April and Vargas volunteers as an assistant teacher in the religious education program, calling her involvement "awesome." She is so taken with the concept that she says she wants other inactive or alienated Catholics to know about it,

"Catholics Returning Home" begins at 7:30 p.m. on six Thursdays from Jan. 10 to Feb. 14 in the St. Hubert Ministry Center, 729 Grand Canyon St., Hoffman Estates. The welcome evening will be an overview and faith sharing. Other sessions are on inactive Catholics, the Church since Vatican II, explanations on the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation and a call to discipleship.

The Rev. Robert Rizzo, who will be at some of the sessions, says he is gladdened when Catholics return to the church for whatever reason kept them away. He says he and the team aim to allow folks to air their concerns, hurts and issues with the Catholic Church and promises a response "with solid answers and appropriate apologies." The pastor believes that what the church offers in its sacramental system is the reason it is important for folks to "come home." He said everyone is welcome.

"Praising and thanking God with the community on Sunday is the epitome of expressing who we are and the way to discover God in ourselves and the Christian community," Rizzo said. "I found that people leave the church because they are angry with a pastor, the church teachings or even because of poor homilies but mainly they are too busy and neglect to see the value of attending Mass. That is unfortunate because our faith is not private, but instead it is personal and public."

The series focuses on those who were raised Catholic but don't attend, those who think they are separated from the church, those who want to update themselves on today's church and Catholics who want to come home. For more information, call Gene or Eileen Farrell at (847) 843-1975.

For her part, Vargas is enthused, says the decision to return caused her son and her to be closer, and led the two to study the Bible together.

"I feel free because I can openly speak about my religion now and I don't keep behind closed doors anymore. My son and I pray together every night and in the morning on the way to school. We definitely are closer," Vargas said.