'We Live It Every Day'

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Catholics Find Solace in Religious Keepsakes

The Hickey family keeps Catholic relics throughout their house as a reminder of their faith.

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He said friends will say, "You're 25; you should be out getting drunk and having a good time, not going to church."

Those who eschew artificial birth control and have large families say they hear comments and rude remarks when they venture out with their children: "Don't you have enough?" and "Aren't you done yet?"

Sam Fatzinger, a Bowie mother of 11, has learned to respond with a tart: "No, I'm just getting warmed up."

"So many people think that with large families you're weird or crazy," said Nicole Santschi, 41, of Manassas, who is expecting her eighth child. "But we're normal, down to earth. But our goal is to get our kids into heaven and doing what God wants us to do. It's hard, but He gives us the grace to do it."

In the Hickey household, daily life revolves around the Catholic Church.

"We try to make this like a mini-church -- a domestic church," said Karen Hickey, a former Senate press secretary who grew up Jewish.

Even 3-year-old Caroline has memorized some of the evening rosary, chirping "Hail Mary, full of grace" with only modest prompting from David.

During the day, Karen and the children make it a practice to say novenas -- a devotion modeled on the nine days of prayers that, according to the Bible, the Apostles said after Jesus's ascension to heaven. On one recent warm day, Karen gathered the children together for the fifth day of the St. Joseph Novena. With 4-month-old Alice on her lap and the other wiggly children -- 7-year-old Henry, 5-year-old Charlie, Caroline and 2-year-old Jane -- around her, she read from the novena book.

As she read, "God employed only the humble who do not claim for themselves glory," Henry burst out indignantly, "You left the door open, and there is a giant bee."

Karen paused only briefly.

"Thank you," she said calmly, and kept reading.