LEWISTON – Bishop Joseph J. Gerry will make his final official visit to the city this Sunday when he celebrates Mass and presides over initiation rites for 160 new Catholics at Saints Peter and Paul Church.

The bishop is retiring at the end of March. He’ll return to St. Anselm’s monastery in Manchester, N.H., resuming his life as a Benedictine monk.

Gerry has led Maine’s 234,000 Roman Catholics for 15 years. After turning 75 in September, he submitted his resignation. Church law calls for bishops to retire at 75.

An auxiliary bishop from Salem, Mass., Richard Malone, 57, was named this month by Pope John Paul II to succeed Gerry.

Sue Bernard, communications director for the Diocese of Portland, said Gerry is presiding over the Rite of Election at four parishes around Maine this month and next. At 2 p.m. at Saints Peter and Paul Church, the bishop will celebrate Mass and lead parishioners in the rites that lead to church membership for converts.

Bernard estimated that about 160 catechumens – people who have never been baptized – and candidates – people baptized in other faiths – will be introduced at Sunday’s ceremonies here. The Rites of Election call for godparents to introduce the people being nominated for acceptance into the Catholic church. Generally the rites conclude a year or more of church attendance and study by those converting to the Catholic faith. After the rites, baptisms or confirmations take place during the season leading up to Easter.

The rites date back to the early days of the Catholic Church and were reaffirmed during Vatican-based councils of the church’s bishops and cardinals in the 20th century.

In Catholic doctrine, the term “election” refers to the concept of being among God’s chosen people. Once converts complete the rites and are baptized, they’re “elected” into the Catholic Church.

Besides presiding over Sunday’s celebrations here, Gerry will oversee an identical ceremony at 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, and at 11 a.m. Sunday, March 7, at St. Mary’s Church in Presque Isle. He already said Mass and presided over the rites this past Sunday at St. John’s Church in Bangor.

Bernard said that diocese-wide, more than 350 people are in the formal process of becoming baptized or preparing for reception into full communion in the Catholic faith.

She said that with Lent beginning Wednesday, this is the traditional time for the church to recognize those people and invite them to pray, reflect on the Scriptures, to fast and to join in the church community’s practice of charity. Entire parish memberships are called to pray for and support those joining the church, she said.

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