Kellie Kiefner was baptized at Our Lady of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church in Moorestown. It is where she was married, where she buried her father, and where she takes her four daughters, ages 4 to 7.

At Sunday Mass she is surrounded by lifelong friends who also grew up in the faith and have chosen to raise their children in it.

"I think that's a testament," she said.

Count Kiefner, 37, among the ranks of the devout - confident in the tenets of the Catholic Church and the edicts of its leaders. Hers is a strongly held personal faith, a conviction that God is there, listening, and will answer her prayers. Even if sometimes the answer is no.

She was 10 when her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 19 when he died. Rather than weakening her faith, his illness strengthened it, she says.

"We prayed that he would be OK. When he was really sick at the end, the only comfort I got was praying for him, knowing that he was going to a better place, and that he would always be with me."

Her Catholicism, she says, has informed her life for as long as she can remember. In choosing a college, she picked St. Joseph's University, earning a degree in accounting. She married a man who is Catholic and, also like her, one of five children. They attend Mass every week. Anthony belongs to the Knights of Columbus, and she volunteers on church committees.

On Sundays their three younger daughters go to Noah's Ark, a church-preparatory program at the parish school, while the eldest joins her parents at Mass.

"I feel like I was given a gift of this religion," she said. "I want to give that same gift to my children."

Jeff Gammage