RCIA and confession

[Cmc1]

I have been going to Catholic church for over 2 years now, was going to join the faithful this Easter but couldn’t. I thought the week before or after we would do confession I did not think that you could do confession any earlier

 

[ProdglArchitect]

It’s my understanding that, generally speaking, you cannot partake of the Sacrament of Reconciliation until you are Catholic, with one major exception: imminent threat of death. Even then, you have to believe in the efficacy of the sacrament for the it work for you.

From the way your statement is worded, it sounds like you were offered confession even though you couldn’t enter the Church this Easter. Is that correct?

 

[Cmc1]

In anòther post someone said they was doing rcia like me but was going to confession I thought that was wrong but was not sure and yes I believe sacrament and the Catholic Faith

 

[ProdglArchitect]

There may be special circumstances, or it may be that they are a lapsed Catholic going through RCIA to relearn the faith. All that is technically necessary for confession to be effective is: be baptized, believe in the Church and the efficacy of the sacraments, and repent of your sins. It is technically possible for a non-Catholic to meet all of these criteria, it’s just not normal for a non-Catholic to be admitted to the sacrament.

 

[Cecilia2017]

My understanding is:

If you are NOT baptized then you will only need to go to confession after your baptism (as and when you need to).

If you are baptized and in RCIA due to the tendency for parishes to group their catechumen and candidates for reception into full communion together then you would have been required to go to confession reasonably close in time to your reception. In our parish it’s normally at the start of Holy Week.
As none of our churches (UK) had a public Easter Vigil this year there will come another time for the baptisms, confirmations and first communion and, no doubt, the time scale for expected first confession will be adjusted and advised accordingly.
Why not try asking your RCIA leader who will know your personal circumstances?

 

[Shasta-Rose]

If you’re a candidate (already baptized) in RCIA, you have to go to Reconciliation shortly before Easter Vigil.

 

[Usige]

You can talk to your pastor to see what they can do. As other’s say, if you are already baptized you would have gone to confession sometime before making a profession of faith.

When I was in RCIA we had a small class that did a year round RCIA program (i.e. people started throughout the year and were received when individuals were ready). I was received in February but asked the priest if I could do my first confession in December. He agreed and then I went to confession again 2 months later before the mass when I made the profession of faith.

It will really depend on the priest, but when someone who is baptized is already committed to joining the Church, you are in that grey area where you are not yet Catholic by profession, but you are part of the Church through baptism and desire to be united to His church.