Ulysses community welcomes father, daughter into the Church

At the Easter vigil at Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Ulysses, the father and daughter stood side by side as together they were baptized into the Catholic Church. Moments later, the pair received their First Communion, and later still, they received the sacrament of Confirmation.

As if the deeply emotional ceremony ("The Mass wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen," Duran would later recall) wasn’t enough, moments later Duran was married again for the first time.

Because Duran had been non-Catholic when she married her husband, Juan, a Catholic, the two had celebrated a civil wedding. On this night, with Duran in her long, white robe she wore during the Baptism, and with the couple’s three children looking on, the two walked the aisle again, this time to have their marriage blessed in the Catholic Church.

"We said our vows and exchanged rings," she said. "The church was packed. After it was over, everyone was emotional, even people we didn’t know. The whole night was awesome."

Duran met her husband 15 years ago, but it wasn’t until another monumental event in her life that she realized something was amiss.

"Waking up at 30, I realized I was missing something," she said. "I needed to begin a new relationship with God. I started going to church and Father Tony [Judge] was there. He was a huge inspiration. He was great. I thought, ‘This is what I need to do.’"

Wickwar, Duran’s father, had attended the Methodist church with his grandparents at a young age while growing up in Goodland. He attended other faith traditions throughout his youth, but it wasn’t until attending a Catholic Mass with his wife, Joycelyn, that he said he felt "really comfortable."

On Oct. 5, 1990, he married his second wife, Joycelyn (Schartz), in the Catholic Church.

"When my wife and I got together, my son Wes started going to Mass. He liked it and joined the Church. His wife, Amy Novak-Wickwar, is Catholic.

"She didn’t push me too hard to join," Wickwar said of his wife, Joycelyn. "But she’s very pleased that I did. I’d been going to church with her and wanted to join, but thought it would be quite a lengthy process."

It was his daughter who encouraged him last year that that would be the year the two would join the Church, and together they began taking RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) classes.

"I just finished up RCIA," Wickwar said. "It was great. Erica Oglevie, the RCIA director, does a really great job. She has a lot of knowledge and is willing to share it."

RCIA classes usually begin around September and last until the Easter Vigil, some including classes that go on for a short time after the vigil. Classes are held on an individual basis at any parish where there are candidates. Throughout the eight- to nine-month RCIA period, candidates attend classes once a week.

"It turned out to be something I enjoyed," Wickwar said. "Every week I looked forward to it."

"It was kind of the buddy system, so it was nice," Duran said of attended classes with her father. "I feel like I completed something within myself. It was nice to share it with my dad; we’re pretty close."

"The service was the most beautiful service I’d ever seen," Wickwar added. "It was quite an experience."

Wickwar wanted to thank Mary, Queen of Peace pastor Father James Dieker for his help and guidance. Father Dieker was in the midst of several months of Spanish immersion in Mexico when the Easter Vigil occurred. Both offered their sincere thanks to the parish community and Father Judge, who stood in for Father Dieker during his absence. Duran wanted to be sure to thank the parishioners for the "wonderful" way the church was decorated.