At the Easter Vigil on March 30, 2024 in churches across The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, about 1,350 people entered into full Communion with the Catholic Church, including the elect, those who were not been baptized and were preparing to receive at Easter all three of the Catholic Church’s sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. Also becoming full members of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil were candidates, those who were already baptized in the Catholic faith or who were baptized in another Christian faith and who were preparing to receive the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. Some people who became members of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil in the archdiocese shared the stories of their journeys of faith in this Lenten series of articles.
Music helped inspire Angèle Griffin’s interest in becoming Catholic, and after receiving the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Communion and becoming Catholic at the March 30 Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill, she hopes to join the choir there.
Griffin, who is from California, now works as a foreign affairs staffer for a member of Congress. Speaking of the excitement that sometimes comes with her work, she said, “I always joke around people. It feels like I’m living reality TV, something is always happening. You have to watch the video.”
Noting the roots of her faith, Griffin said her mother is Catholic, “so I kind of grew up understanding Catholicism.” When she studied for her bachelor’s degree in international affairs at the University of San Francisco, she began rediscovering the Catholic faith. In an interview, Griffin said that slowly but surely during her college years, she began to “understand what it meant to have a relationship with God.”
“When I first started going to the University of San Francisco, which is a Jesuit school, I started joining the choir, because I was really fascinated with classical music. When I started reading the music, the words, I realized they were really prayers,” Griffin said, adding that every time that the choir practiced singing music, the choir director, who was Jewish, explained the meaning behind the music, and what went into the composition. That helped spark her interest in Catholicism and the history of the Catholic Church.
After graduation, she came to Washington, D.C., and later earned a master’s degree in public policy and national security at George Washington University.
“When I came to Washington, D.C., you know things happen for a reason,” she said, adding that she became more interested in becoming Catholic as she began her professional career working on Capitol Hill and earning a related master’s degree. “(I’m very grateful and thankful for what God has set for me. I was able to get my master’s degree at a young age, I was fortunately able to land a job in exactly what I wanted to do. So many things were happening to me, I thought the best way to give thanks was to go the official route of becoming Catholic.”
Her newfound faith has been a source of strength for Griffin as she has worked in foreign affairs, which she said can be an emotional experience as tragedies are unfolding around the world. Griffin noted how after the terror attack on Israel last fall and the resulting war in Gaza, she has known how people from both sides of that conflict have endured pain. And last year she visited Ukraine and saw how some parts of that country had been hit by explosions and shrapnel from the Russian offensive, and also witnessed how Ukrainians found solace at Eastern Orthodox churches there.
‘You can tell that when things go wrong, the first place that people go to was church, was God. Through the best and worst, God is the first thing they go to for comfort or answers,” Griffin said, adding, “It showed me as I continue through my profession and personal life… having a strong relationship with God when things are good or bad is so important for finding peace within yourself, being able to have a rational mind when things go bad, just being able to navigate your emotions, especially when things are out of control.”
She said the classes that she took at St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill in preparation for receiving the sacraments at the Easter Vigil helped her “understand not only the value of religion, but of having a strong relationship with God.”
Griffin – whose path to Catholicism opened up after singing in her college choir – added that after becoming Catholic, “I want to join the choir there (at St. Peter’s Church). For one, they have an organ, for which I’m a big fan. I love the way the prayers are sung during Mass, it really touches me, I feel one with the music and one with the prayer.”
