Protestant Christians converting to Catholicism

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Ms1980

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I’m a protestant Christian who is joining the Catholic Church. I’m attending RCIA and find it mind numbing and boring. As a life long Christian I find it to be almost patronizing. Most of the people in my class are christians coming from protestant churches and know more about the bible than the lady leading it. The things we are learning are very elementary and some of us feel like they think they’re talking to space aliens who have never heard of God or read the bible. Our deacons wife has also made us feel uncomfortable because she is upset that we ask questions that are too hard for her to answer. How do I deal with this? Just because we were Protestant does not mean we weren’t christians and don’t know anything about the bible.
 
There is so much more to RCIA than the Bible alone. I’m sorry you feel the answers to your questions aren’t being adequately, but that can happen. No specific solutions, except to work with your sponsor or others to fully answer your questions regarding the faith.
 
If this is happening as you say, it’s poor catechesis. As a former Baptist and now a catechist, I was very fortunate with my RCIA. You should not be made to feel anything but being welcomed. I also knew the Bible, but there is the Catholic teaching which is quite different. Also, much of what you will learn will be about Catholic Tradition, the liturgical year, prayers, and such. So, my advice would be to focus less on what you already know, but think about what you can learn. Not to make excuses for the deacon’s wife, but she is volunteering her time to help you come into the Church. You may think she is weak in Bible knowledge, but she is most likely strong on tradition and that comes from the Bible and the early Church. There are so many good Apologetic books out there - and I read and keep reading on my own. If you still feel this way, talk with your priest about it.
 
I’m sorry you are having some negative experiences in RCIA.

RCIA nowadays tends to be a pre-developed program, pitched to the lowest common denominator because there may well be some people in it who have had little or no exposure to the Bible, Jesus, or religion. Unfortunately, this means that some of the people who have done a lot of Bible study or read a lot of apologetics before becoming Catholics are going to have moments of being bored.

Apart from that, I generally agree with what Dlee said.
 
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Ms1980 said:
How do I deal with this?
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Patience.

As you progress in your knowledge of Catholic teaching you may learn about the cardinal virtues. The third cardinal virtue is fortitude. Patience is a form of the moral virtue of fortitude.
 
I think I need to add that my husband grew up Catholic and we’ve been married almost 18 years. I know all of what they are teaching in the class because of his family. Also, we are coming from the Lutheran faith which has the lectergical year, so we are relearning everything that the Lutherans already do. Today we learned about the Advent wreath. Lutherans have that tridition! So I guess I’m just wishing they had 2 different classes. One in which they hold for those who have never been to church and may not be Christians and another one for those who are Christians. Thank you all for your replies.
 
See what I mean, patronizing. I already know the Virtues, would you like to learn them?
 
Back when my father converted almost 60 years ago, priests would do individual instruction and could kind of pitch it to the level of the person being instructed. Nowadays, with the manpower shortage, it would be difficult to individually instruct everyone.

As this Reddit thread shows, you’re not alone.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/7qa5l3/rcia_for_lifelong_protestants

I would suggest perhaps speaking with your pastor to see if the RCIA is really needed in the case of you and your husband.
 
Ms1980 said:
The thing is, if a person has to sit through a class that is so simple a 5 year old could do it, every single Thursday, FOR A YEAR it gets boring and it’s a waste of time. The fact that the Catholic church makes people of faith sit through such drivel is exasperating. And being attact by Catholics when expressing my feelings is also uncharitable!
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You are selling the RCIA program extremely short. If you think you can do better, stop venting, go through the program, become Catholic then
volunteer your time teaching RCIA.

Words mean nothing, its action that counts.
 
There are many books you can read to find more in-depth information on the teachings of the Catholic Faith. There are also many Youtube videos you can find if you search for “RCIA.”
I went through RCIA two years ago, and was also raised Lutheran, and had gone to Nazarene, Baptist and nondenominational churches throughout my life. My RCIA teachers were very good, but because we had some teens and some adults with minimal Christian backgrounds, they had to adapt the teaching to accommodate everyone. So I studied the Catechism and read books or viewed videos to enhance my RCIA education. Any questions I had I brought up in class. If an instructor didn’t explain something clearly I would press for clarification. I treated RCIA like a college course where most of the learning takes place outside of the classroom with our own studies.
Pray for patience and for your RCIA instructors. You only have a few more months of RCIA, then your learning about the Catholic Faith will really begin. God Bless!
 
So according to you it’s ok for him/her to be patronizing and assuming I don’t know that patiece is a virtue but it’s not ok for me to ask if they know? Ok then. So you’re the moral police? Great to know!!! You’ll probably flag this so I’m not holding my breath in you being very charitable!!! Thanks for the prayers, I’ll pray for you too!
 
According to me, This person is trying to teach you according to their position as a volunteer.
So this person is, no doubt, teaching from a set program approved by the Bishop of the Diocese. This person is most likely not an educated theologian, but is incredibly generous with her time, and is giving it to you and the others at RCIA who need to do RCIA on the Journey to become Catholic.
And if you think you can do it better, Great! Go through it, then volunteer to teach RCIA and get changes in that you believe need to be made.
No problem with that is there?

Here is a link to CAF rules, they can be hard to find.

https://forums.catholic-questions.org/faq
 
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Ms1980, I’m not trying to add fuel to the fire here, but the moderators have been really quick to suspend/ ban people lately, and technically your last couple posts are violating the terms of service (TOS) in the board FAQ.

I’m not flagging you because you’re new and you’re posting in good faith and I understand you’re frustrated with RCIA and stuff, but as a friendly word of warning, it’s not a good idea to call other posters names on here or say that aspects of Catholic procedure are “exasperating”. The board has a really high standard for civility and people have been suspended or banned for much less.

To be clear, I’m not a moderator and am just mentioning this trying to defuse/ be helpful.

God bless
 
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Ms1980 said:
I already know the Virtues, would you like to learn them?
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Have you spoken to the pastor about your RCIA classes? I believe that if he thinks you don’t need the classes, he could receive you into the Church sooner.
 
That is great. I feel that is very important in order to help answer the many questions, both doctrine and practice, that come up by those contemplating entering the Catholic faith.
 
Ms1980 said:
I’m a protestant Christian who is joining the Catholic Church. I’m attending RCIA and find it mind numbing and boring. As a life long Christian I find it to be almost patronizing. Most of the people in my class are christians coming from protestant churches and know more about the bible than the lady leading it. The things we are learning are very elementary and some of us feel like they think they’re talking to space aliens who have never heard of God or read the bible. Our deacons wife has also made us feel uncomfortable because she is upset that we ask questions that are too hard for her to answer. How do I deal with this? Just because we were Protestant does not mean we weren’t christians and don’t know anything about the bible.
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I am not Catholic, and don’t ever intend to be, but just wanted to interject for a moment. I understand that you have a Christian background and may be grounded in the basics of the Christian faith. However, it would be remiss if the class assumed that for everyone and did not teach the fundamentals of the Christian faith. That is why they are called fundamentals. If you don’t take time to lay those straight, then those who are being formed into the faith will not have the basics to grasp more difficult concepts. My advice is to approach your class with some patience and love for those who might not be at your level of knowledge and faith.

As an example, when I went to boot camp in the army, they taught us all the fundamentals of how to shoot. Some guys were already familiar with firearms, had hunted all the lives, but for some this was a new concept. But for the benefit of all, they started there so that all could at least meet basic proficiency and then progress from there. I hope that helps.
 
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