After three years of formation, three women — Raquel Berroteran, Cheryl McBride and Sister Marie Paule Rasoanirina, OSST — will be certified as lay ecclesial ministers for service to the Diocese of Cleveland during a 10 a.m. Mass on Oct. 11 in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Bishop Edward Malesic is scheduled to celebrate the liturgy.
Berroteran said she has fallen deeply in love with the Catholic Church and its people. She is director of PSR and sacramental formation Holy Family in Stow. Berroteran also has served at vacation Bible school, as a Eucharistic minister to the homebound, through the ministry for married couples, as a mentor for engaged couples, as a member of the Welcome Committee and at weekly adoration.
She and her husband Louis are the parents of two children.
McBride said she once was a skeptic of Catholicism but experienced a profound journey of faith that led her to become a devoted disciple of Christ and a passionate sharer of his message. During her LEM formation, she also earned a master’s degree in theology from Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology.
She is a fourth and fifth grade religion teacher at St. Raphael School in Bay Village. Previously, McBride was the middle school youth minister at St. Raphael. She also serves as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion and a PSR catechist. In addition, she has volunteered with the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish in Cleveland through St. Ladislas Parish in Westlake.
McBride and her husband Chris have two children.
Sister Rasoanirina, a native of Madagascar, entered the Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity there and made her first vows on Aug. 15, 1992. After earning a bachelor’s degree, she worked with youth group team leaders while teaching sixth through ninth grades from 1992 to 1996, when she was assigned to be a missionary in the United States.
She continued her education at Ursuline College, graduating in 2002. Sister Rasoanirina has served as a technology teacher at St. Rocco School in Cleveland. She also taught RCIA, PSR and brought holy Communion to the homebound, those in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities while ministering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,.
After returning to Cleveland in 2012, she assisted with discovery days at the Center for Pastoral Leadership in Wickliffe, volunteered as a sacristan at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Cleveland and sang in the choir there, as well as teaching religion at Mater Dei Academy at the CPL. She continues to teach and work part time at the CPL.
There are more than 300 certified lay ecclesial ministers in the diocese who serve at parishes, and diocesan offices as pastoral associates, catechetical leaders, campus ministers, youth ministers, in bereavement ministry, prison ministry, at retreat houses and through institutions or programs of social outreach and advocacy.
For more information on the LEM program, click here or contact the director, Michelle Nowak, at 440 943-7669 or mnowak@dioceseofcleveland.org.