Can she be in-between while in RCIA?

[PeterC]

My wife started RCIA. Yesterday was her first session. It was after the 5:30 Mass. We had never attended a Saturday Mass before. This morning as I prepared to go to Sunday Mass she questioned are we going to Mass again? I said of course … I want to receive communion again. She had no idea I would have wanted to go to Mass after attending yesterday. I spoke of how much I would enjoy Mass and Communion again today and she understood completely. Especially my desire for Communion.

Then she made a statement that completely surprised me but I understood. She said she did not want to go for such a long (RCIA) period before receiving Communion again. She told me she would probably attend a protestant church from time to time to receive communion. I did not respond because I don’t know the proper answer and if I did, how would I frame it in a positive way?

She is in a very delicate phase of her faith journey to becoming a Catholic. I am sometimes very sensitive to her feelings and do not want to say anything that might raise an obstacle on her road to the Catholic faith. She has had many criticisms of The Catholic Church in the past. Of course the apple cart concerns me at this early stage.

Can you help me with an answer or a return comment to her statement of wanting to receive communion at a protestant church during her RCIA period?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear Peter,

I would be helpful to learn from her why she is in the RCIA. If she wants to be a Catholc, why does she want to be a Catholic? This kind of question can lead to discussing the difference between Catholicism and other forms of Christianity. To be in RCIA is to be in prepatation to become a Catholic. It not a time for fence-sitting.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.