Dissent at RCIA?

[Traditional_Ang]

Texas;

“Sponsor” is a different role than the Catechist/Facilitator.

A sponsor shouldn’t give a teaching unless invited to by the Coordinator of RCIA, or by the priest in charge.

Jmcrae:

And, In exchange, the RCIA Instructor is to insure that whatever instruction he or she is giving the students is, in fact, the Teaching of the Church and not personal opinion, or, worse, downright heresy.

In this case, the Instructor is teaching downright heresy. That breaks the contract and the normative situation you described. In such cases, doing what you prescribed leaves the sponsor the option of allowing the Catechumens entrusted to him or her to be taught heresy or to take them to a different parish.

Which would you have MarieTeresa do?

Your Brother in Christ, Michael

 

[Traditional_Ang]

you have the right to sound, complete teaching on Catholic doctrine. You should confront the catechist and ask point blank if this class is going to teach the faith or teach doubt and dissent, because you have no wish to waste your time hearing anything that is not in accord with Catholic belief and practice. You are not required to endure this type of thing. If the answer is not satisfactory make an appointment with the pastor on Monday morning and ask him if this type of teaching has his approval.

Puzzleanne:

Well Said. I esp. agree with the first part, In fact, I would state that the Obligation to provide teaching in sound doctrine to a Catechumen is a Sacred Duty or a Serious Moral Obligation. When I was doing it, even though I hadn’t been accepted into the Church, I took it so seriously that I took textbooks that contradicted the Faith and substituted copies of the Baltimore Catechism (the official Cathechism of the Church in 1983) and The New American Bible. and systematically went through the Doctrines of the Church relating to the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Holy Spirit and His Action in the Church, the Authority of the Church and of Scripture, the Sacraments and the Role of Mary in Salvation and the Life of the Church.

Given the textbooks they had bought, I don’t think the priests were very concerned with doctrinal error. In fact, they were shocked that I had tried so hard to stick to teaching the Catholic Faith.

It’s because of that experience, and because of the fact that the Pastor is responsible for and has authority over the RCIA program, I would say to approach the Pastor first to see what he would do to correct the heretical teaching. If he will, then the teachrer has been acting on her own, and the heresy can be corrected without too much difficulty.

OTOH, what does one do if the Pastor refuses to correct the problem? And, here, I’d only say that it’s best to know the Pastor’s attitude before confronting the problem.

Your Brother in Christ, Michael

 

[Pug]

We can only hope that the Teacher didn’t get the idea from the Pastor

Quite so.

I’m envisioning a scenario that could be one of several things. Since we were told that the person criticized *PVI for **not *allowing birth control, that indicated to me that the person at least correctly told the class that humanae vitae did not allow birth control. This would be true and correct. So what is wrong here? One of several things. First, the person could be giving bad example by criticizing bishops and popes in front of this class. Second, the person could believe that any day now Pope Benedict XVI could easily make birth control okay by some type of fiat. Third, the person could believe that birth control is okay, and that authority is meaningless. There are other possibilities or combinations. We don’t have enough info to know.

The first type of error is correctable by a gentle reminder. The second could be corrected by talking with the person to see why they think that and providing them with facts and sending them themselves to talk to the pastor. I would not wish to call a pastor down upon them if they are perfectly willing to go talk with him. If it happened at my parish, it would have been ignorance or weakness, and they would accept correction, and they would go talk with the appropriate people. In both those cases, the person would apologize and make things right in the next class period, assuming they retained the position. The third is likely beyond OP’s intervention, to say the least.

To admonish her brother is OP’s job. To control a rogue catechist, that is the priest’s job. When I told OP to talk to the person first, I’m thinking about OP’s duties. I’m thinking about admonishing. I realize that as the situation unfolds, many things could come to light. Let’s hope not!

 

[jmcrae]

Which would you have MarieTeresa do?

First, don’t make a public fuss, and don’t present a teaching during the Q&A period.

Most of us (Protestants and non-Catholics) are conditioned through years of public school to believe the teacher - MarieTeresa isn’t going to accomplish anything by heckling, no matter how calmly, reasonably, and unemotionally she heckles.

From the RCIA participant’s point of view: It’s the teacher who’s grading us, and who’s opinion determines whether we move up to the next level, or not; not whomever else, no matter how eloquently they may speak.

Second, using the channels provided by the Church, either correct (best option) or (if correction is impossible) get rid of the Catechist.

A second teaching can be given at a later date by an authorized Catechist (including MarieTeresa herself) which would then be received as authoritative by the RCIA participants. She could passingly mention the first incident by stating that some members may have been confused by a previous presentation on this subject, but, as far as possible, don’t mention it any further than that.

If the students themselves point out that the previous teaching was totally opposite, acknowledge that fact, but don’t get into the blame game, and don’t call the previous catechist names like “heretic” etc. - even if true, it only muddies the waters. Just say, “Even with the best of intentions, things sometimes come out wrong. We’re just trying to correct any confusion that may have occurred,” and leave it there, while presenting the accurate teaching.

If the entire parish is heterodox, and she can’t improve things in this particular RCIA, then she should take her candidate to a more orthodox parish for RCIA. But again, don’t call names - just say, “We’re changing parishes because I think this one will provide you with a broader variety of Catholic experiences,” - which it probably will.

 

[Pug]

Second, the person could believe that any day now Pope Benedict XVI could easily make birth control okay by some type of fiat.

Ugh! I’m quoting myself since I can’t edit my post now. Just so there is no confusion, when I said birth control in my post, I’m thinking of the pill and contraception. Not everyone uses the word like I do. The words “birth control” to me means the bad stuff, okay? I know some people include NFP as birth control. I didn’t mean to include it that way. I call NFP natural regulation of births. Yeah, I know. I need to be more precise. Sorry! I meant contraception in my post.