Crosby

The account below comes from the Kennebec Journal, a daily newspaper serving Br. Crosby’s native central Maine. 

Elaine and Nathaniel Crosby of Wayne, Maine, had a special reason for tuning in to the Easter Vigil Service broadcast from Rome.

Kyle Joseph Crosby, their son, led the procession of Pope Benedict XVI into St. Peter´s Basilica.

Brother Kyle Crosby, 22, a seminarian in Rome with Legionaries of Christ, called on Saturday and left a message for his parents: "Look for me. I will be participating in the Pope´s Easter Vigil and I will be carrying the cross.

They saw him -- wearing a black cassock and white surplice -- three times during the ceremony broadcast by the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

"He led the whole procession in and was the first one to leave the church," Elaine Crosby said on Sunday.

"When he came in the first time, the top of his head is the first head you see. You see the cross and see the person holding the cross."

Crosby hears from her son via telephone about once a month but he sends e-mail more frequently.

Brother Kyle has been studying to become a priest since he graduated from Maranacook Community High School in 2003.

"Ever since he was a little boy, I knew he had that calling," Elaine Crosby said.

The Crosby family belongs to St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Parish in Winthrop, and Kyle Crosby attended St. Mary´s School in Augusta, graduating first in his class.

He was among the Top 10 students at Maranacook when he graduated.

He joined the Legionaries of Christ, an order founded in the 1940s in Mexico City.

Elaine Crosby said her son was chosen from about 450 seminarians to carry the cross in the procession during the Easter Vigil service.

"It´s quite an honor to be able to participate in the Mass," she said on Sunday. "I´m very very proud. I´m sure he felt so honored. Of all that large group, he was asked to do this. I was flying high all day yesterday."

Kyle Crosby first went to study in Cheshire, Conn., and went to Rome in August.

"He won´t be ordained for another 10 years," Elaine Crosby said. "It´s a missionary teaching order, and you must speak five languages."

Crosby speaks Spanish in the seminary, his mother said. He also studies English, Italian, Latin and French.

"He is a very good student," she said.

Crosby participated in the Vatican soccer championships and plays basketball. He played soccer and basketball and football at Maranacook.

"This order is also very athletic," Elaine Crosby said. "They feel if they stay healthy, they can have a better chance to help people."