March 16, 2022

Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a planned series of several features highlighting individuals who are participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) as they move toward entering the Catholic Church.

By Mary Beth Bracy
Contributing Writer

POTSDAM – One of several young adults are preparing to enter the Church at Easter, Jack Kumpf, a senior and business management major at Clarkson University, said rather than one major experience, his journey to faith was a process.

“I grew up in an agnostic house,” said Kumpf, a native of Victor, New York, near Rochester. “My mother is a baptized, but non-practicing, Catholic, and dad is an atheist. It [religion] just wasn’t a thing for me. Some people have something big happen that kind of changes their whole way of life. That wasn’t the case for me. It was sort of a build up over time, it was like I constantly noticed evil in the world. And I’m a pretty logical person, so if the devil is real and evil is real then that must mean there is a God.”

In February 2021, he emailed Father Joseph W. Giroux, who invited him to come to Mass.

“I literally just went to St. Mary’s one day. I sat down and I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I met a friend of mine who’s actually sponsoring me now, and it just took off from there. It’s not like one big event. It’s not like an addict who had a near death experience and saw the light. But it’s not like a small thing either. I kind of just fled from evil, I kind of just realized it. I took initiative.”

Jack, who has a minor in history, found books about history of Catholicism interesting.

“I researched the difference between Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodox,” he said. “Basically Catholicism just spoke to me more. I mean it has more history, I like the way they do things, I like the traditional aspects of Catholicism. So that’s why I gave Catholicism a try and I’ve never looked back since.”

Faithful friends have encouraged Kumpf on the way.

“I started meeting people at Church right away,” he said. “I just noticed that people I go to Church with are just better people, they’re just nicer people [than non-Church friends]. They kind of have more of a handle on life. They seem more happy, they seem more balanced in life. When I see my friends who I’m going to Church with, I see people who are ready to graduate. What’s inspired me are other Catholics. Connor Cummings, the campus minister, is a good friend of mine. Whenever I have a question he answers it or points me in the right direction.”

The RCIA program has been a positive experience for Kumpf.

“Every Sunday after Mass we will meet in the church, and there will be a specific topic that day,” he said. “Topics can be like the Eucharist, the Bible, salvation. We’ll watch a video going in-depth about it, and we’ll talk about it. Our RCIA teacher will explain things in between and at the end. We’ll have prayers at the end. I’ve researched stuff on my own, so oftentimes I’ll know the stuff they talk about, but other times it’s stuff I never really had a handle on, but now I completely understand.”

Although Kumpf hasn’t chosen his confirmation name yet, he has a concept of what saint he’d like.

“I want to pick a saint that would go well with the concept of dying for your faith, I want to pick a saint that was martyred,” he said. “I want someone who was pushed to the edge and still never renounced his faith in God. Because that can relate to anything in the faith, really, not just being tortured by infidels.”

Currently, Kumpf is involved in Newman Club and enjoys going on the “amazing” Campus Ministry retreats to Guggenheim.

“It is so great there,” he said. “They have all these activities, you help out with the Church there. It’s like you get a vacation to Lake Placid, and you get to become a better Catholic, and you get to be with your friends. So, I mean, there you go.”

Kumpf has found learning about the faith interesting, especially belief in the Holy Eucharist.

“At first, I didn’t understand what it was at all, and it took me awhile to get a grasp around it,” he said. “The history about it, when we read about it in the Bible, when Jesus says to eat His body and to drink His blood. It is interesting that people fled from him.”

One of the greatest blessings that Kumpf has found in faith is a sense of balance.

“Catholicism brings order to life and everything about it is about discipline and order,” he said. “It has hierarchies, it has an official organization, it has its own terms, it has very specific traditions about what you can and especially what you cannot do. If you want your life to have order and not chaos and disorder, Catholicism is what you should be doing. Now that I’ve become a Catholic myself my life has had more order, more stability, things are getting better and I’m just a better person. Catholicism brings discipline to yourself and, more importantly, it is the one section of Christianity that teaches you to deny yourself. If you want to be just a Christian you can be Protestant, but if you want to be one of Jesus’ disciples, you have to deny yourself. If you want to deny yourself, the best way to do that is to become a Catholic.

“The end result of seeking salvation, and – not just in the afterlife, but knowing that once I really clean myself from sin and become better person – I know how much better life is going to be and how much more fulfilling it is going to be. I’m very excited,” Kumpf said.