Process of joining Catholic Church better when priests, laypeople work together

[Maranatha]

Process of joining Catholic Church better when priests, laypeople work together

The Catholic Church’s system for bringing people into the faith works best when laypeople and priests take an active part and when the learning process stretches beyond the classroom, a new book by a Wake Forest University sociologist reports.

In “Real Stories of Christian Initiation,” co-authored with Sarah MacMillen and Kelly Culver, David Yamane documents how the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) was practiced in five parishes in Indiana. Yamane, assistant professor of sociology, spent almost a year observing the RCIA process.

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[bellesjoy]

Yamane focuses on the sociology of religion and postwar American Catholicism and edits the academic journal, “Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review.” He is also the author of “Student Movements for Multiculturalism” and “The Catholic Church in State Politics,” and editor of “Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church.”

The above paragraph at the bottom of the article is very telling about the author. I am not impressed with someone who spent 1 year observing the RCIA process. Some of the problems with lack of instruction don’t show up immediately.

I support the idea that having the priest involved increases sucess, and there are very good lay catechist. But I have seen lay cathechist who are left to teach what ever their brand of faith is and that can be a disaster. All Catechist should be able to afirm their faith in all Catholic doctrine before being involved with RCIA.