Need Los Angeles/SFV area RCIA class reccomendations, please!

[rjg99a]

I’ve posted in a couple other threads too, but my husband and I have been going to RCIA classes this fall. It is not an easy commitment to attend in the first place - we (with permission) have to bring along our 3yr old and 6 mo old and take turns occasionally stepping out of the room to attend to them - but I’m starting to feel disheartened and don’t know if it’s worth the effort to return anyway.

I was raised Protestant, attended Christian schools most of my life as well as college, and consider myself decently intelligent. I am convinced of things analytically more than emotionally, which is why I long ago lost my Protestant faith but have recently become interested in the Catholic faith instead. In other words, I was hoping to get something more out of RCIA than I seem to be getting. And we’ve given it a month now at this particular parish.

I feel as though the RCIA leaders are so focused on trying to make Catholicism sound appealing to the general masses that they are afraid to be direct about anything. I could just suffer through this if it were just me, but ugh, it’s HARD WORK getting our family out of the house and keeping both kids relatively quiet during class. Everyone else in the class is there just to receive certain sacraments so they can either be married in the church, or because they are expecting and want their child raised Catholic, or are there just supporting their spouses. My husband and I, both raised Protestant, are the most non-(catholic)“Christian” of everyone, but the RCIA teachers are still addressing us like we’re all brand new to religion.They ask very boring and simplistic questions, and the class is always silent because no one is engaged. It feels like I’m back in school and just have to sit there until it’s over with.

So yesterday, due to Halloween/All Saints Day, they asked us if anyone had any questions about death or saints or why we celebrate them this time of year. I was feeling daring I guess, or just bored, and I said I’d like to ask about purgatory (as it’s something I am curious about and has to do with death). The RCIA instructors seemed to get a bit uncomfortable with the topic and gave rather vague answers. When I asked clarifying questions, they would answer only partially and then say that it was a lot to talk about and we could discuss further into the process. Then later in the class, the topic of life support came up. When I asked about the Catholic teaching on life support and if/when someone should be taken off it, I was just told that it was very complicated and confusing for most people and we could talk about it later.

Is it wrong that I’m annoyed by this? RCIA is the first time I’ve ever had live Catholics in front of me to ask questions to (I mostly just read online and here on CAF), and I’d like to be able to ask questions without feeling brushed off, or that my mind is somehow incapable of understanding! I became first interested in the Catholic faith BECAUSE it seems more intellectually based and I thought it was a place where I could ask the deep questions.

Anyways, I’m sorry for this rant (I did not originally plan for this post to turn into a rant; it just came out that way ), but what I really want to ask is:
Can anyone recommend RCIA classes in the LA/SFV area? My husband and I would consider looking for somewhere that was a better fit for us. We do have scheduling issue though, with kids and work, so it’s hard to find something.

Or, does anyone know a church who could offer us one-on-one sessions? I feel like it would so much more productive to than to just sit through the RCIA classes we have been and getting very little out of.

 

[Isca]

I can’t help with your specific question as I’m in England, but I do have some sympathy with your frustrations about the ‘simplistic’ nature of your classes. I attended my RCIA course last year and had a lot of ‘deep’ questions I wanted to ask our priest (who takes the classes himself). However, it would just not have been appropriate, as it would have excluded the other members of the small group (who were not native English-speakers).

I decided to take what was kindly offered in the spirit it was being offered, if you know what I mean. The priest did the right thing to keep it simple, as others wouldn’t have felt part of the group if a big intellectual discussion had started up. There is a great deal of information online which will help you to get answers to your questions, including on this forum.

One of our group did receive one-to-one instruction from the priest until just before Easter, but that was because he worked in other countries a lot of the time and really couldn’t get to the classes. I missed a few due to being abroad, and I saw the priest on my own once or twice, too. Those were helpful sessions, but I appreciate that not everywhere would offer this option.

Good luck with this - it must be hard having to attend with your children, but we also had a lady who had to bring her son with her (6 years old), and he ended up making some great contributions to the sessions!

 

[John_Martin]

I became Catholic, going through RCIA, like you, and I did enliven the conversations, but probably because I was fast becoming in love with the Catholic Church and its teachings and wanted to know about them all. I did know some were there for the reasons you stated - I found out later that my nephew had become Catholic just to get married in the Church (yet, I was not Catholic, and my wife and I were married in the Church about 7 years before I became Catholic, without any requirement that I be Catholic, and the priest even sought permission from the Bishop for me to receive communion at our wedding, and the Bishop granted it - in North Carolina).

Anyway, to my point - I wouldn’t let anything stop me from “touching the hem of Jesus’ robe”, from being with him in the Church.

By the way, if you are interested in Purgatory, and what a fairly new Catholic has worked at learning, see what I wrote at my site: softvocation.org/2014/09/24/the-last-things-part-i/

In a way, because of your great desire to learn what it is to be Catholic, you will be like a breath of new air for your parish. If you switch to a different RCIA class or personal sessions with a priest or deacon, keep asking the fun and hard questions - all of the answers are really there, and really, really good.

 

[Neofight]

Ask about the possibility of private instruction…I typically walk with about a half dozen people a year on their journey of faith, to accommodate special needs.

 

[Magdalen2013]

And if your RCIA team hasn’t given you a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, get one and read it. I found a lot more detailed answers in mine than we were able to cover in our group sessions.

 

[whatsmyname]

I’m coming to understand that the RCIA process isn’t really designed to teach one much about Catholicism, but it is a trial one must bear in order to join the church. We just have to be patient and suffer through. For you, it’s the inconvenience of dealing with a family and childcare while attending inconveniently scheduled classes while not learning what you hoped to learn. For me, it’s the same lack of learning what I had hoped to learn (or having it taught accurately) while losing a pretty good chunk of my income because I must miss work to attend the classes. It could be a whole lot worse…we could be facing beheadings or crucifixions as some Christians have had to.

You might want to call around and ask if any of the churches in your area offer childcare during RCIA. During the months my church doesn’t have RCIA, they have Inquiry which is where you go and ask questions. I was always the only one attending and the only format was the deacon asking me, “What questions do you have?” If I had no questions, it was over. I wasn’t always satisfied with the depth of his answers, but I could ask what I wanted. Something like that might be helpful.

I’ve really enjoyed the free Knights of Columbus courses I took online. Maybe they’ll help enlighten you, too. kofc.org/en/cis/courses/index.html

And a big thank you to the poster on Catholic Answers who first called my attention to these courses.

 

[rjg99a]

I have not yet responded to this post but thank you so much to everyone who replied! I did start looking into a couple of other local parishes. While one church never even called me back a lady at another responded very warmly and welcoming to my email. My husband and I just met with her after mass this afternoon and it was such a breath of fresh air! I felt like it was the first person who saw that this was something we really wanted to do and was willing to find a way to make it work with us! I loved that she even wanted to meet with us before getting started in the classes just to kind of get a feel for where we are on our journey. She told us about the RCIA classes and how they give actual presentations and assured me that they will answer my questions as they come up and not just ask me to wait til a later date. I just felt like I might actually be able to get so much more out of the RCIA classes here. Really, it’s kind of like an answered prayer.

The only difficulty now is that the classes are held on Monday evenings and they don’t allow kids to sit in. Which means that we’d have to hire a babysitter, and I won’t be able to attend until after Thanksgiving (we’ll be getting a second car over Thanksgiving; right now I’m without a car during the day), and my husband will likely always be at least 30-60 min. late after work.

But, we’re doing what we can. And though I haven’t been to an actual class yet, just from what I’ve seen and heard so far, I think this might actually be the right place for me.

 

[rjg99a]

I’ve really enjoyed the free Knights of Columbus courses I took online. Maybe they’ll help enlighten you, too. kofc.org/en/cis/courses/index.html

And a big thank you to the poster on Catholic Answers who first called my attention to these courses.

And, thank you for this suggestion! I’m looking at it right now and it seems very helpful and something I’d love to have found earlier in my own inquiry process!