How long do RCIA classes typically last each weekend?

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My husband started his RCIA classes in April, and I couldn’t be happier, but it is taking up more time than expected.

We attend a 10AM mass, and the first few weeks we drove together. However, he was not getting out of his classes until 1:00 or 1:30. Is this excessively long or par for the course. My mom led RCIA class at my childhood parish, and they normally finished 30-40 minutes after mass was dismissed.

I’ve started attending the Saturday evening mass without my husband because trying to find two parking spots at the most popular Sunday mass at the cathedral is nearly impossible, and I am not going to just sit around for 2-2.5 hours after mass waiting for him to finish.

Are my expectations on how long classes should last out of line, or does he just have an overly enthusiastic RCIA teacher?
 
My RCIA was from 10-12 every week. Mass was at 9am, dismissal after the homily, a break around 10 for a coffee, then back in class till noon.
Every RCIA is done a little differently, some are shorter classes over a longer period of time.

In my class we had several spouses and sponsor’s in the class. That solved the problem of having to just wait around till we finished each week.

Sandy
 
Sandy_dfw said:
My RCIA was from 10-12 every week. Mass was at 9am, dismissal after the homily, a break around 10 for a coffee, then back in class till noon.
Every RCIA is done a little differently, some are shorter classes over a longer period of time.

In my class we had several spouses and sponsor’s in the class. That solved the problem of having to just wait around till we finished each week.

Sandy
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I guess this makes a lot of sense, as RCIA was a 50 week process for candidates at my home parish, and at our new parish it’s a 20-30 week commitment
 
My RCIA classes were on a Wednesday evening and lasted 2 hours. They started in September and ended the week before Easter Vigil.
I am sure that we ran over that two hours occasionally, but since they started at 7pm, most folks were heading home fairly quickly after class ended so they could get to bed.
 
It really depends on the parish.

My RCIA class was on a weeknight for a little over an hour until Lent. Our instructor was keenly aware that most of us had young kids (under 5) at home and that we needed to get them to bed and focus on family stuff. During Lent, we met for maybe a half hour or so during the Eucharist part of the mass.

Personally, I would be thrilled that your spouse’s RCIA class is lasting as long as it is.

I felt like the classes I had during mass were a waste of my time because they were a lot shorter than our weeknight classes. Also, there were a lot more distractions with kids (mine included) and spouses coming in and out of room. I don’t feel like I got the same quality that I got from our weeknight class.

I’m sure it’s a hassle going to two different masses, but it sounds like the quality of instruction he’s getting is a lot better than what I got when classes were held on Sundays.

I know it’s frustrating because Sunday tends to be a family day, but remember that this situation isn’t permanent. He’s doing what he has to do to be a Roman Catholic.
 
Two hours is pretty typical. The RCIA at my old parish was Thursday from 7-9 plus Sunday Mass with breaking open the word.
 
RCIA at our parish is each Wednesday from 7-8:30 then the Rite of Dismissal after the homily at the 10:30 Sunday Mass for Breaking Open the Word which lasted until the end of the Mass, from mid-September until the Wednesday before the Easter Vigil.
 
I find it kind of odd that finding two parking spots is impossible? How can that be that much harder than finding one?

Just curious.

I mean, you would think if it were impossible to find two, it’d be impossible to find one. I doubt there is like, reserved parking for exactly the number of people who attend each week. That number has gotta fluctuation by at least a couple from week to week.

In regard to length of RCIA classes, I have no idea; I’ve never attended or had any involvement with RCIA.
 
UnCatholicBride said:
My husband started his RCIA classes in April, and I couldn’t be happier, but it is taking up more time than expected.

We attend a 10AM mass, and the first few weeks we drove together. However, he was not getting out of his classes until 1:00 or 1:30. Is this excessively long or par for the course. My mom led RCIA class at my childhood parish, and they normally finished 30-40 minutes after mass was dismissed.

I’ve started attending the Saturday evening mass without my husband because trying to find two parking spots at the most popular Sunday mass at the cathedral is nearly impossible, and I am not going to just sit around for 2-2.5 hours after mass waiting for him to finish.

Are my expectations on how long classes should last out of line, or does he just have an overly enthusiastic RCIA teacher?
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No offense,but a common misunderstanding with many Catholics is the: one size fits all. Every parish runs and operates differently. Different communities have different needs and areas of concern. When I am asked such a question, I usually tell the person:

Well it depends on the current group of RCIA folks. It all depends on how much catechetical background they possess or lack,will determine the length of the course (class time) for this year.
 
1ke said:
plus Sunday Mass with breaking open the word.
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We didn’t do this, and the parish I attended here never did this.

I have to tell you that I would have died a thousand deaths to get up in the middle of mass and leave when I was going to RCIA.
We had a huge church that was always packed and many masses on the weekend.
Actually, I think that would probably have been a deal breaker for me, I don’t like attention drawn to myself at all.
Plus I really don’t do early mass, and 10 is early in my book. 12 noon is doable and vigil mass was best!
So if my parish back east had done that, I would never gotten past inquiring.
 
Mine was Monday evening, 7 pm to 9 pm, Breaking Open the Word every Sunday at Mass, end of August to Easter Vigil.
 
My RCIA process went one weekday evening 7:30 to 9 p.m. for about 7 months and a breaking open of the word session that lasted from dismissal to the end of Mass. During Holy Week I felt like I was living at the church. I showed up early and only had to park on the street once. 😊
 
It really depends. I’ve been involved in RCIA at 3 different parishes (one as a candidate [actually 2, but that’s another story] and two as an instructor). Each of them were slightly different, but in general they averaged out to 2 hours a week with maybe another 20 - 45 minutes of “suggested” reading outside of class.
gh4 said:
I have to tell you that I would have died a thousand deaths to get up in the middle of mass and leave when I was going to RCIA.
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Dismissal really bothered me too the first place I started RCIA. I actually moved to another parish that had year round RCIA that worked better for me. The biggest issue for me was that candidates and catechumen were dismissed after the liturgy of the word in my first parish. Kinda bothered me that candidates were dismissed despite being members of the body of Christ through their baptism. The second parish invited candidates to break open the word, but is wasn’t done as part of class.

The two parishes I have taught at only did dismissal for the catechumen after the rite of acceptance. Since we had classes on Tuesdays or Wednesday evenings candidates weren’t even required to be there for a specific mass other than when specific rites were being done.
 
My RCIA processed was a relatively centralized process with people from several churches in the surrounding area. So, we weren’t dismissed from mass every week starting after the rite of welcoming. We did leave mass when there were specific rites, but we were done when mass was done. Our sessions were from 7:00 pm to about 9:00 or 9:30 on Wednesdays. There were also a couple of Saturdays for scheduling reasons. We started in September and ended just after Pentecost.

We had a survey at the end of RCIA and one of the questions was about the “breaking open the Word” whcih was supposed to be after we were dismissed from mass. I really really REALLY didn’t like this. The rationale was “well you can’t receive communion anyways, so why stay for that part?” Well, because if I can’t RECEIVE it, I really want to be CLOSE to it. I would have preferred to have separate discussion time for the week’s readings. Combined with the fact that my sponsor was from another parish, it made coordination difficult.
 
Our classes run from 10:00 to 11:30 Sundays after the 9 am Mass, and we do not do dismissal at Mass. Our classes run from September through the week before Easter.

I think this is fairly typical, give or take 1/2 hour.
 
RedSparklyShoes said:
My RCIA processed was a relatively centralized process with people from several churches in the surrounding area. So, we weren’t dismissed from mass every week starting after the rite of welcoming. We did leave mass when there were specific rites, but we were done when mass was done. Our sessions were from 7:00 pm to about 9:00 or 9:30 on Wednesdays. There were also a couple of Saturdays for scheduling reasons. We started in September and ended just after Pentecost.

We had a survey at the end of RCIA and one of the questions was about the “breaking open the Word” whcih was supposed to be after we were dismissed from mass. I really really REALLY didn’t like this. **The rationale was “well you can’t receive communion anyways, so why stay for that part?” ** Well, because if I can’t RECEIVE it, I really want to be CLOSE to it. I would have preferred to have separate discussion time for the week’s readings. Combined with the fact that my sponsor was from another parish, it made coordination difficult.
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Quick question? Were you a convert from a different Christian faith or a catechumenate (unbaptized)?
 
Nicea325 said:
Quick question? Were you a convert from a different Christian faith or a catechumenate (unbaptized)?
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I grew up Anglican. In terms of the dismissal, no differentiation was made between the one catachumen and the three candidates. It bothered me a bit, but it’s not like I was going to make a scene and not do what I was told. Even in one of the scrutinies that happened, the rites were different for the catachumen versus candidates and the RCIA director was behind the candidates in a pew and the priest kept telling us to stand up, she kept telling us to sit down.
 
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