Our pastor wants us to attend an institute for RCIA put on by this group. Catholic Culture says they are suspect - some book authors on NAF are in Call to Action. May of them are no longer on NAF’s list, but there are still a few. So - is this a program we want to go to, or not?? Appreciate any help.
I have attended 4 NAFC workshops, and hosted one in our parish for the diocese. The diocese has invited them back to do a workshop for DREs, RCIA directors (often the same person) and pastors this summer. The reason is they are still the only game in town. the “competition” Association for Catechumenal Ministry does have a diocesan-wide training program but as yet we cannot afford it, and it is a one-size fits all program right now. I hope in the future they will be able to offer the more tailored “curriculum” in more locations that NAFC has. ACM is the gold standard but until they are accessible and bi-lingual and more flexible as now many parishes and diocese cannot benefit.
If you have a chance to bring ACM to your diocese push it, push it. If NAFC is the option now take it, but with a huge grain of salt, all your instincts operational, and your common sense activated.
The presenters and authors for NAFC are all over the map in terms of orthodoxy but they are the people who “invented” the way RCIA was implemented from the 70s on in most US and Canadian parishes. They filled a vacuum, which is what happens when the more orthodox, traditional, whatever element in the Church abdicates leadership responsibility. They also filled a need, and continue to fill it. More power to them.
their strength is their insistence, quite correct and orthodox, that the church prays as the church believes and liturgy itself, including naturally the RCIA rites, teach. The closer the presenters stick to the actual liturgy the better they do. The problem comes, as it always does when people play games with liturgy, when they violate their own norms and engage in loosey goosey liturgy (homemade bread with questionable ingredients, odd choice of music, you know, the usual American worship-lite liturgies we have become inured to).
Have realistic expectations when you go into the seminar, which should be one of the Beginnings workshops. the good side: for someone unfamiliar with RCIA, or whose knowledge comes from trying to wade through the ritual book, the institute provides the much needed liturgical framework for how RCIA is supposed to happen.
the beginnings inst. walks the participants through the whole process as it should unfold in the parish over the liturgical year, in the experiential pedagogy that is inherent in the NAFC view (which prevails in catechesis overall these days). That is great as far as it goes. It is nearly impossible to understand RCIA until you have been through it for a full liturgical year.
Be aware however of the danger that accompanies the “experience is king” school of catechetics, which is of course that it gives primacy of importance to not only the candidate/catechumen’s (c/c for short?) experience, but that of the catechist and sponsor as well. that means, as 30 years of catechetics on that model have proven, that doctrine takes a back seat. That is something the RCIA team in the parish can easily overcome if they have their heads on straight in the parish.
the other challenge you will encounter is the POV expressed by some (not all) the presenters, and sadly many of the participants who should know better in classroom and outside discussions. If you are regular CAFer you should have ammunition to meet those attacks but it will certainly be an eye opener. Again a properly formed parish RCIA team can just bypass all the drivel if they implement a proper doctrinal formation.
the third challenge is the bias toward lectionary based catechesis which actually is legitimate and inherent in the rites. Just avoid the easy way out of assuming the only catechesis c/c’s need is that contained in the Sunday readings. That should be the starting point, but they still need systematic doctrinal formation, and there are many good guides on the market to help the catechist achieve this. Don’t expect much guidance on this however from NAFC.
Yes do go to the workshop esp. if the pastor will pay for it. I got thrust into RCIA, and had to learn quickly, on my own dime, but I consider the investment well worth it (you get ContEd credit for it if you need it). Somebody who does not already have a solid faith formation may be led astray, but no CAFer should have that problem. Just keep your eyes and ears open, learn what is good, be wary of but not swayed by what is kinky, and appreciate these very dedicated people for the gifts they do have. And pray your diocese brings in ACM soon.
