This Easter, among the more than 220 in Hawaii who will be welcomed into the Catholic faith, receiving the sacraments of initiation — Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist — will be a soldier and a second-grader
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Army Specialist Sasha Robello and her RCIA sponsor, Giordano “Gio” Saenz, got engaged in January (Courtesy photo)
A void not being filled
When Army Specialist Sasha Robello arrived in Hawaii on her first active-duty assignment, she couldn’t have predicted that she’d find in the islands both her future husband and her new faith.
Robello, 21, met her now-fiancé, Giordano “Gio” Saenz, 25, online and started learning more about the Catholic faith from him. Saenz is originally from Peru but raised in Florida, and his family is “very Catholic” according to Robello.
However, she says her faith journey began even before she met Saenz.
“I’ve always felt like I had a connection to God,” Robello said.
Robello was born in Florida and adopted. Her father was in the Army for 25 years, and the family moved a lot while Robello was growing up.
Robello said she wanted to attend church with her friends, but her parents were not religious and didn’t support that.
“I developed a deeper and more personal connection to God when I was going through things more recently,” she said.
That included a hip injury that could’ve prevented her from joining the Army and a sense of loneliness.
“I felt like there was a void not being filled,” Robello said. “And then when I started going to church, I felt all of the emptiness and all of the loneliness start dissipating.”
After she met Saenz, the two went to Mass together at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Parish in Mililani.
“I think a part of me has always had that instinct of wanting to be baptized,” Robello said. “So the moment I made that official, that I really wanted to be committed to the faith, after going to church for a couple of weeks, is when I started asking [about the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults].”
Susan Ganibe, St. John’s RCIA coordinator, said Robello was initially quieter in classes but has gradually opened up.
“They just want to learn more!” Ganibe said of Robello and Saenz, who is her RCIA sponsor. “I’m getting so close to God, just knowing these people that really want to journey to see the Lord more.”
Robello and Saenz got engaged in January and are planning for a December wedding in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Saenz’s family lives.
Robello said RCIA has influenced how she and Saenz approach their future married life and how they live out their dating life now. As her sponsor, Saenz goes to all the RCIA classes with Robello and has deepened his own faith in the process.
“It’s helped me a lot as a person when it comes to just overall being a better person, like being nicer to people, understanding where they’re coming from, just trying to treat everyone like God would want to treat people,” she said.
“And it’s definitely helped me with my loneliness because I know, at the end of the day, no matter who’s with me, I still have that connection and that relationship with God.”
Rylan Grance and his sisters Kaylee, left, and Jadyn (Courtesy photo)
Only one not baptized
Rylan Grance, 8, is a typical second grader who lights up when talking about video games and the sports he likes to play though he is a little shyer when it comes to sharing about his faith.
But on a recent visit with him and his mother, Nicole Grance, Rylan did talk about how he was excited to become Catholic.
Rylan attends St. Theresa School in Kekaha on the west side of Kauai. At the start of the year, when his second-grade class began learning about the sacraments, he realized he was the only one not baptized.
Now he’s excited by the idea that he will receive all three sacraments of initiation before the rest of his class. Rylan will join the church at the Easter Vigil while St. Theresa’s second graders will be confirmed and receive first Communion at a Mass in June with Bishop Larry Silva.
“We were just talking about that,” Nicole said with a laugh. “He goes, ‘It’s going to be cool and crazy because all my friends are going to say, how come I get to eat the wafer before them!’”
Mary Alvarez-Manuel, who teaches second-grade sacramental preparation to St. Theresa parish and school students, has enjoyed seeing Rylan develop in his faith.
The two of them had their own one-to-one class after the recent scrutinies at Sunday Mass and she said, “He was really into it!” of the special lesson.
Rylan has picked St. Matthew the Apostle for his confirmation namesake. His grandfather, Larry Grance, will be his confirmation sponsor, and his grandmother, Gina Dappen, will be his godmother.
Eventually, Nicole, who works at St. Theresa as a teacher’s aide and in the extended day program, hopes her two younger kids, Kaylee, 6, and Jadyn, 3, will also be baptized. She herself was baptized but did not receive the other sacraments of initiation and plans to finish her sacramental prep as well.
