Does Your Parish Receive Candidates at the Easter Vigil?

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SMHW

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Does Your parish receive Candidates for full Initiation into the Church at the Easter Vigil?

My parish did for many years but several years ago we moved away from that model and normally receive Candidates at other times of the year.

Of course we still baptize at the Easter Vigil.
 
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Some parishes in my diocese do. Some still make people go through the RCIA process and do everything at the Vigil.

My understanding is that the Church did not envision “candidates” going through RCIA, but that’s what happened, probably due to time/personnel constraints.
 
I’m pretty sure our Candidates still take many of the classes offered in conjunction with the RCIA and we may have some combined rites. But I’m not sure.

We have definitely stopped dismissing Candidates.
 
Yes, they do. I was one of them two years ago. I’ll be there again this year because I love watching new members entering the church.
 
I am one of the candidates being received by my parish into full communion with the Church at the 2019 Easter Vigil. This Sunday I will participate in the Call to Continuing Conversion at the Cathedral. I have been side by side with catechumens in RCIA since September 2018. I am following in obediance with my parish. 💒
 
CilladeRoma said:
My understanding is that the Church did not envision “candidates” going through RCIA, but that’s what happened, probably due to time/personnel constraints.
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Yes and no. The “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults” book that is used in the U.S. makes provisions for both candidates and catechumen, as well as combined rites for both. I should look into the history of how that book arose, though. I’m not particularly fond of forcing everyone onto one time table regardless of when they stop by the parish asking about receiving sacraments. But time/personnel constraints are very real. It’s not practical for many parishes to have multiple formation processes going concurrently with staggered start and end times.

To answer the OP, yes, my parish receives candidates at the Easter Vigil. We are exploring other ways of doing things, though. Maybe in 5–10 years, I’ll have an awesome model to share with everyone. 😜 What really needs to happen first is to recruit and train a lot more people in the pews for assisting with parish ministries. It will take more than just me to change the status quo.
 
Wouldn’t the question be about the diocese or archdiocese receiving candidates during the Vigil since parishes are subservient to them? Just asking because I am new and have much to learn.
 
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Fraevo63 said:
Wouldn’t the question be about the diocese or archdiocese receiving candidates during the Vigil since parishes are subservient to them?
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If the bishop issues a directive regarding Candidates being received at the Easter
Vigil then this might be the case. But I don’t see a bishop doing any more than making a recommendation.

At least in my archdiocese there is some preference for separate receptions. Candidates ARE baptised Christians and even if uncatechised they deserve be treated as if they are already members of the Body of Christ. Catechumens, however knowledgeable they might be, are not yet joined through baptism.

Joe ready gave a reason why many parishes receive both Catechumens and Candidates at the Easter Vigil. Sometimes the practical has to win.
 
I’m going to mention this here because it does come up when parishes begin having separate receptions for Catechumens and Candidates.

Some parish members and some Candidates feel like the Candidates are being slighted if they don’t get to go through all the excitement and pageantry of the Easter Vigil. I can understand this. My husband was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil and it was one of the highlights of his life.

At my parish we try to receive Candidates into full communion on Sundays during the Christmas or Easter seasons, or perhaps on another Solemnity. My pastor tries to make a big deal of how these persons are ALREADY members of Christ’s body but they are now taking the big step of making a profession of faith and being confirmed. We might even have a reception for them following Mass.

This brings me to another reason why some parishes receive Candidates at the Easter Vigil. Pastors can confirm at the Easter Vigil but they need special faculties to do so at other times of the year. The bishop may have reservations about granting the faculties to confirm at a time other than the Easter Vigil.
 
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SMHW said:
This brings me to another reason why some parishes receive Candidates at the Easter Vigil. Pastors can confirm at the Easter Vigil but they need special faculties to do so at other times of the year. The bishop may have reservations about granting the faculties to confirm at a time other than the Easter Vigil.
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Good point. That definitely is a factor. It’s far easier for the pastor to do it at the Easter Vigil than to be asking the bishop a dozen times a year for special permission to confirm.
SMHW said:
Some parish members and some Candidates feel like the Candidates are being slighted if they don’t get to go through all the excitement and pageantry of the Easter Vigil.
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This is one of the reasons my parish liturgy/music director says we shouldn’t have anyone receive the sacraments at the Easter Vigil. 😜 I’m not sure I agree with that, but I do see her point. Not only do those who come into the Church at other times receive less fanfare (and thus potentially feel slighted), but then also the focus of the Easter Vigil can tend towards being on those coming into the Church rather than simply on the Resurrection. Again, I don’t really buy that completely, but I find it to be an interesting point of view.
 
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SMHW said:
Pastors can confirm at the Easter Vigil but they need special faculties to do so at other times of the year.
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This is not quite right. If someone from another Church community is being received into full communion, the pastor can confirm them without special permission from the bishop. If Catholics need to be confirmed, the bishop has to give special permission.

Of course, the bishop should be informed in any case, so this is just a legal technicality.

It is not always a good idea to celebrate recption into full communion with great fanfare. It implies a triumphalism that portrays the other community in a bad light. A baptism is a pivotal moment; reception can be, but it is not always. For many people, it is a step on the journey, not a momentous event.
 
Our archdiocese celebrates both the Rite of Election and the Rite of Sending. And Candidates make a Profession of Faith, after the Catechumens (if any) of been baptized; then all receive Confirmation.

Some parishes may be able to run two tracts at the same time, but I suspect they are fewer than those who can’t.

Further, I question that those coming into the Church from another faith community do not need a review of the topics which a non-baptized person needs. Or perhaps I should say, I question that candidates need less catechesis than do catechumens.
 
otjm said:
Further, I question that those coming into the Church from another faith community do not need a review of the topics which a non-baptized person needs. Or perhaps I should say, I question that candidates need less catechesis than do catechumens.
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There are non-Catholics who are better catechized than many of our cradle Catholics.
 
I was a candidate who went through RCIA and was received at the Easter Vigil - just the way our Diocese does it. It was good for me as I was totally new to Catholicism. It was a wonderful learning time.
 
Our Bishop does not give pastors blanket permission to Confirm outside of the Easter Vigil. They have to ask every time. Candidates are either Confirmed at th Vigil or at one of the diocesan Confirmations which are held twice a year at the cathedral unless the pastor gets permission.
 
Yes, my parish does the confirmations as well as the baptisms at the Easter Vigil. Sometimes someone will be confirmed outside of the Vigil, but that isn’t the norm where I’m at. I’m at a large, growing parish and when I was received into the church as a candidate in 2017 there were about 20 baptisms, and 40 people total were confirmed!
 
otjm said:
Further, I question that those coming into the Church from another faith community do not need a review of the topics which a non-baptized person needs. Or perhaps I should say, I question that candidates need less catechesis than do catechumens.
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I don’t think anyone disputes this.

I think even in parishes like mine where the Candidates are usually not received into the Church at the Easter Vigil, both the baptized and unbaptized usually take the same classes.

It’s just that you would think a Candidate, by virtue of his baptism, would need less “formation” than a Catechumen. Getting to come into full communion when they are ready rather than having to wait until the next Easter Vigil is kind of a “perk” or being baptized.
 
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