RCIA- Is it absolutely necessary?

[G_S]

The RCIA is mandatory. The difficulty is that parishes often see their version of the RCIA as mandatory. For example, a man in our parish who always brought his children to Mass and religious instruction while his Catholic wife stayed at home was told that, since he was a long-distance truck driver, no accomodations could be made for him because he was always gone on Tuesday night and RCIA was mandatory. After years of trying, the whole family was lost to the Church. Quite obscene, really.

 

[TimOliv]

The RCIA is mandatory. The difficulty is that parishes often see their version of the RCIA as mandatory. For example, a man in our parish who always brought his children to Mass and religious instruction while his Catholic wife stayed at home was told that, since he was a long-distance truck driver, no accomodations could be made for him because he was always gone on Tuesday night and RCIA was mandatory. After years of trying, the whole family was lost to the Church. Quite obscene, really.

RCIA is mandatory for catechumens, not for people who are already baptized.

 

[G_S]

The RCIA is mandatory. The difficulty is that parishes often see their version of the RCIA as mandatory. For example, a man in our parish who always brought his children to Mass and religious instruction while his Catholic wife stayed at home was told that, since he was a long-distance truck driver, no accomodations could be made for him because he was always gone on Tuesday night and RCIA was mandatory. After years of trying, the whole family was lost to the Church. Quite obscene, really.

 

[Podo2005]

I am currently participating in an RCIA program and finding it very difficult. It’s not problems with Catholicism. Far from it. I am excited and anxious to join the Church and I’m at the point where I don’t think anything could change my mind.

However, I’m finding RCIA a phenomenal waste of my time and a huge disappointment. There are more RCIA team members than catechumens and none of them seem to really know anything about Catholic teaching. They are all mostl people who have already gone through teh RCIA program and have nothing to offer except their person interpretation of the weekly readings and their own faith experiences.

I guess when I first heard about RCIA I thought it was about teaching. I figured since every Catholic is supposed to agree with and believe everything the Church teaches then before you join you need to learn exactly what that is and that would be what RCIA is for. I already know a significant ammount of Church teaching but I figured it would be fun to discuss it with other people and stuff. RCIA is turning out to be nothing like that. Little actual teaching has gone on so far.

The second major problem I’m having is that the little teaching we have received from our Deacon is just… wrong. I won’t go into detail now but I can tell I’ll have a full year of correcting his teaching.

Anyway, my point is, what’s the point of this class? I’m learning absolutely nothing except that our Deacon is bordering on heresy and our parish seems to be pretty liberal. The more I go the more distaste I gain for this parish and it’s leaders. I know everything I need to know to be a Catholic. I don’t need this. Why do I have to go through an entire year of this to become a Catholic? If I were a less determined person I would have already given up and said “If the Church wants to make it so hard for me to join her then why in the world should I?”

Isn’t there some way to get around it?

Umm in the RCIA there is supposed to sharing of the readings and Faith sharing between the two of you and that is how you grow in your faith to be able to be initiated into the catholic church. ( especially since Christ’s word is more important at the moment then learning about the church teachings which u can read about later on) And BTW Church Teaching is obviously based on the teachings of Christ so it wont hurt to read and reflect upon that ( I know its hard for us catholics to do but with help from the holy spirit we will triumph )

God Bless

Podo

 

[Chris-WA]

However, I’m finding RCIA a phenomenal waste of my time and a huge disappointment. There are more RCIA team members than catechumens and none of them seem to really know anything about Catholic teaching. They are all mostl people who have already gone through teh RCIA program and have nothing to offer except their person interpretation of the weekly readings and their own faith experiences.

I guess when I first heard about RCIA I thought it was about teaching. I figured since every Catholic is supposed to agree with and believe everything the Church teaches then before you join you need to learn exactly what that is and that would be what RCIA is for. I already know a significant ammount of Church teaching but I figured it would be fun to discuss it with other people and stuff. RCIA is turning out to be nothing like that. Little actual teaching has gone on so far.

The second major problem I’m having is that the little teaching we have received from our Deacon is just… wrong. I won’t go into detail now but I can tell I’ll have a full year of correcting his teaching.

Anyway, my point is, what’s the point of this class? I’m learning absolutely nothing except that our Deacon is bordering on heresy and our parish seems to be pretty liberal. The more I go the more distaste I gain for this parish and it’s leaders. I know everything I need to know to be a Catholic. I don’t need this. Why do I have to go through an entire year of this to become a Catholic? If I were a less determined person I would have already given up and said “If the Church wants to make it so hard for me to join her then why in the world should I?”

Isn’t there some way to get around it?

Let me be the first Catholic to apologize for what sounds like a really lousy RCIA program you are suffering through. As a Catholic this embarrasses me, especially because your experience is all too common. Many parishes are plagued with poor catechesis, especially for adults. And worse yet, many parishes are plagued by a liberal mentality when it comes to church teachings. You will find some instructors teaching outright nonsense either due to a lack of proper understanding or a veiled disdane for the teaching authority of the Magisterium on certain issues. Sometimes these instructors base things on their own personal interpretation or on some whacky thelogian’s writings who happens to openly disagree with official church teaching.

If you are experiencing this, I highly recommend never attending another RCIA class at that parish and finding a parish with a program that teaches authentic Catholicism as taught by the Magisterium. Here is a hint–if your RCIA instructor does not regularly use the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a reference source for your class, steer clear because there is something wrong going on there. If you find your RCIA instructors teaching falsehood on a routine basis, I would have a meeting with the pastor just to let him know what’s going on. He may or may not fix it, but at least you have done your part to try to correct that kind of nonsense.

Again I am truly sorry you have to experience this. It is sad but there is hope. There are many other parishes with good programs out there. Hopefully there is one not too far from where you live. Ask around and you should be able to find a better one.

 

[Birdysboy]

I disagree. Verita is converting to the Church. She (or he) may have some knowledge of the faith, but she (or he) needs instruction before entering. If the class is so bad that Verta can discern the errors, she (or he) should not go back. How many errors will Verita not catch, and end up adhering to? That’s not the way to enter the Church.

So cut and run? Or take heresy head on? You are confusing

But thats your right to be a coward. My way helps everyone. Your way helps no one.

 

[Birdysboy]

I don’t know about approval or disapproval of RCIA, but I know Bro. Rich is right: Baptized Christians of other denominations are not supposed to go through the whole shebang as if they were backwater swamp heathens. Too many parishes lump the catechumens together with the already baptized for their own convenience.

I like USMC’s idea of calling around until Verita can find a priest who will listen, or a parish that has a better program for the baptized. It isn’t always a good idea to practice humility by sitting through what one already knows, especially when one has bene placed in the wrong category.

Most of the Catholics I have met have said they wished they had been through it because when they were asked about their faith they felt like “Backwater swamp heavens”.

The students that go through the whole class are prepared for the “heresy of the day”. OSAS, deny the real presence, deny the sacraments, contraception, etc.

I don’t know why so many people in this thread want to push people away from this RCIA class. Why is that?

 

[drforjc]

Umm in the RCIA there is supposed to sharing of the readings and Faith sharing between the two of you and that is how you grow in your faith to be able to be initiated into the catholic church. ( especially since Christ’s word is more important at the moment then learning about the church teachings which u can read about later on) And BTW Church Teaching is obviously based on the teachings of Christ so it wont hurt to read and reflect upon that ( I know its hard for us catholics to do but with help from the holy spirit we will triumph )

God Bless

Podo

My point early on was that many baptized non catholic christians are familiar with “Christ’s word” and possess a real relationship with Him. RCIA, being generally in a “class” format, for those who have been searching, studying, praying about converting probably would be, in essence, a waste of time.
Can you imagine making someone like Scott Hahn sit through RCIA at your average parish? (Actually I don’t remember if he did or did not go through the process, but clearly there are those that are “ready” and they should not have to go through the same process as non baptized candidates or non-catholic Christians who have little background in the Catholic faith.

 

[Verita]

Well, after wading through all the posts, (More than I expected!) I’m no less confused. Some people seem to say that RCIA is absolutely mandatory and other that is isn’t. Maybe if I’m a bit more specific to my situation I’ll be able to get more of a concensus on what I should do. Here goes…

I come from a very Christian and very Protestand family. I’ve always been very firm in my faith even when I wasn’t as active as I should be. I can confidently say that I know my Bible pretty well (particularly the OT) and have never had doubts about God. I’ve been Baptized validly in my Protestant church. Four years ago I got married to a man who had been raised Catholic and received his high school education from Jesuits. He knew his faith EXTREMELY well. It wasn’t too long before he had me mostly convinced that the Catholic Church was the true Church. He mostly did this through the Bible and common sense. Early this year I made my final decision to become a Catholic. My husband and I immediately began studying the Catholic faith together in earnest. We obtained a copy of The Faith of the Early Fathers and with it cracked open several versions of the Bible and the Catechism. We went thoroughly over every subject we could think of. We spent hours on it every day. We also listened to alot of old CA programs when we weren’t studying.

Because of all this I feel that though I willingly admit I don’t know everything about Catholicism (I’m still busy immersing myself in various histories.) I know everything I need to know to join the Church. When I questioned how exactly this was done, I was told RCIA. I remember listening to a CA program that talked alot about RCIA and I got the immpression from it that it was about instruction in alot of ways. I never expected indepth theology. I expected a little more, however.

I expected that when we talked about the readings some from the Team would be able to say “this is how the Church understands this passage” instead of everyone just saying how they personally understand it and what it means personally to them. I’ve tried as often as I can to convey some of the things I have learned in my studies, but it never seems enough.

And when actually teaching was supposed to happen I expected the Deacon (who seems to be considered the resident expert) to give more than a second grade understanding. We’re adults in this class after all! I expected, when he was instructing us about Baptism, for him to mention somewhere in the discussion that Baptism forgives sins, that it gives us God’s saving Grace, that it brings us into the family of God and we become part of the Body of Christ, the Church. None of this is very difficult to understand. Yet not a single one of those things was even touched on. On the two occasions when the Deacon has talked about Baptism he first equated it with “a sign of God’s love” and second to “a faith statement”. Nothing more. He also strongly suggested (though not openly) that he doesn’t believe that Baptism is necessary for salvation. I ask you, what kind of instruction is that?

His most recent offense, which I posted about in Apologetics, was to say that our souls are created and exist with God long before they join our earthly bodies. He said we are “eternal” beings. This is wrong on so many levels. I would have confronted him about it but he ran out of the class immediately after he finished talking.

I am torn between wanting to find another Church and wanting to stay so that someone is around to correct this man’s errors! So what should be done in my situation? What would you do?

 

[Pong]

Verita,

Being a Catholic is more than just “knowing everything you need to know to join the Church”. It is a whole different way of life, and a big part of that new life is sharing in a community of believers. While I will admit I am not big on the whole “sharing and feelings” concept, I will still say that it is an important experience for someone wanting to join the Church. Living as a Protestant is not the same as living as a Catholic. RCIA is a good way to get that experience. Years ago the Church recommended private instruction with a priest. Today the focus is on experiencing our faith within a community of belivers. And perhaps more important that all of this is the obedience that is demanded of each Catholic. Surely you don’t want to start your life as a Catholic by trying to get around the rules of your parish?

 

[USMC]

So cut and run? Or take heresy head on? You are confusing

But thats your right to be a coward. My way helps everyone. Your way helps no one.

Your way leads to a new convert being deceived. Fighting heresy is great. I’m all for it and I do it often. However, a new convert who is just entering the Church needs a good and proper formation. They should not have to sift through a mixture of truth and error, and hope they catch all the errors so they can refute them. That is dangerous.

Let them get a proper formation, a true Catholic spirit, and then they will be ready to fight the heretics. Look at how many Priest have been led into heresy. And we are to assume that a new convert will be able to detect and refute all errors, before they have even learned the faith?

That is both imprudent and presumptious.

 

[zorrox]

Not for schismatics and heretics only for the pagan. ; )

For a Protestant a couple of years ago there was retraction of heresy. Profession of faith. Perhaps conditional baptism.

Today all that is required is profession of faith.

All that the Catholic Church belives and professes to be revealed by God, I too believe and profess.

Well that statement is pretty inclusive.

You cannot learn these things in RCIA, it takes all your life.

 

[homewardbound]

I too was worried about RCIA being boring and such, but after attending a few times now I know its where God wants me.

Even if much of it is review for me, I can still help others and build friendships so that when I do enter the Church I won’t feel so alone in my faith(as I kind of do now since the only Catholic I know is my boyfriend and his mom, and my family isn’t supportive of my conversion)

Pray for God’s guidance. One very important thing I’m learning to do with every decision in my life is to always consult God on what His Will is for me.

 

[Verita]

For those of you who think so, I am not trying to beat the system or get around what I am supposed to do. I’m not concerned the process being boring. I’m concerned because I don’t see what sitting around talking about how we feel about particular Bible passages is supposed to help me become a Catholic in any way. I am gaining nothing from this whole process except frustration at the occasional heretical teaching (when any teaching occurs). Perhaps it is just my parish that has a particularly ineffective RCIA process, but this is the most active Parish in the area.

Furthermore, some people here have expressed the possibility that for a validly Baptized Christian, RCIA may not be the correct process to be begin with. I would like to know for certain if this is true, if I am supposed to be in RCIA or whether there is some more appropriate process for me to participate in. I don’t know. I’m here to get answers.

 

[sdnewbie]

Verita,

I was baptized and raised Protestant and had a strong religious background. I began going to Mass with my brothers wife’s family about 10 years ago, and after much soul searching and studying decided that the Catholic Church was like coming home.

I also resisted the notion of attending RCIA and hoped that I could just be confirmed, have my first Confession and my first Communion. No such luck. However, it wound up being such a blessing. Over the course of the 9 months of RCIA we discussed a lot of doctrine, I learned a lot about some of the rites I thought I understood, but didn’t fully understand the history behind, and I could go on and on. We spent a lot of time sharing our stories, what brought us to the church, and would break up into smaller discussion groups of 8-10 before the end of class to reflect on what we were each taking away from the class that week.

Not only did I luck out with our RCIA team and instructors, but what I haven’t heard yet mentioned was becoming part of the Catholic community and family. During the course of RCIA we got to know our fellow soon-to-be-converts (and we had a class of approximately 40 at our parish) and now when we see each other at Mass, its like seeing an old friend and we congregate afterwards and still support each other through our journeys.

As far as your Deacon goes, perhaps see if you can meet with him separately to ask him questions and ask for clarification. If you find the clarification you need from him, perhaps ask him to bring it up in the next class because there may be others in your same situation.

If this isn’t possible, or things aren’t resolved by this, perhaps look for another parish in which to attend RCIA and join. The last thing you want is to be disillusioned with your own parish. Attending Mass each week has not only become spiritual for me, but I look at it as not a chore, but as something I look forward to.

All the ceremonies we went through also were just beautiful and so moving and we had so much support from the whole parish as we were going through each week. Don’t give up on it. We also had people going through RCIA that were already members of the Church, they just wanted to reconnect and learn more about their faith, including my cradle-Catholic then-fiance, now husband. He learned things that he never learned growing up in the Church. Its a never ending learning experience! God Bless You and good luck!

 

[ichabode]

In a case where a catechumen already knows a great deal about the what the Catholic Church teaches a priest may offer some alternatives to RCIA.

Our priest will often have a person mentored by another apart from RCIA, or just skip the process altogether. If the person is already well catechised.

Then you can opt to find a good bible study or apologetics class offered by the Church or start one yourself.

 

[jmcrae]

For those of you who think so, I am not trying to beat the system or get around what I am supposed to do. I’m not concerned the process being boring. I’m concerned because I don’t see what sitting around talking about how we feel about particular Bible passages is supposed to help me become a Catholic in any way. I am gaining nothing from this whole process except frustration at the occasional heretical teaching (when any teaching occurs). Perhaps it is just my parish that has a particularly ineffective RCIA process, but this is the most active Parish in the area.

Keep in mind that RCIA is not only about you. There may be people in your group who have never been exposed to the Bible before. In their case, this is a good way to introduce them to the concept of personal Bible reading.

There are only seven passages in the Bible that have “definitive” Catholic interpretations - the rest of it is pretty much open to common sense. So, unless you’re referring to one of these seven passages, your teacher isn’t doing anything wrong by opening it up to discussion. This is especially appropriate during the Inquiry phase (part I) of the RCIA process.

Furthermore, some people here have expressed the possibility that for a validly Baptized Christian, RCIA may not be the correct process to be begin with. I would like to know for certain if this is true, if I am supposed to be in RCIA or whether there is some more appropriate process for me to participate in. I don’t know. I’m here to get answers.

I am thinking that in your case, given your background, it might be more appropriate for you to have private instruction with a priest, which would probably consist of a few interviews, a written test, probably an essay or two, and then private initiation into the Church through First Confession, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion at an appropriate Sunday Mass.

But if that isn’t possible, and if RCIA is the only thing available right now, then please keep in mind that RCIA is a community experience, and just because you know a great deal, doesn’t mean that other members of your group do, and also that knowledge and understanding doesn’t just come suddenly down from on high, but rather, step by step, and concept built upon concept. They aren’t going to shove the entire 25-course meal down people’s throats on the very first day.

 

[Chris-WA]

Early this year I made my final decision to become a Catholic. My husband and I immediately began studying the Catholic faith together in earnest. We obtained a copy of The Faith of the Early Fathers and with it cracked open several versions of the Bible and the Catechism. We went thoroughly over every subject we could think of. We spent hours on it every day. We also listened to alot of old CA programs when we weren’t studying.

You may not realize this yet but you are the kind of person we need as an RCIA instructor! Based on what you have said, you know more than 99% of most cradle Catholics about Catholicism. Factual knowledge isn’t everything, *but it is the basis *from which to start a good spiritual journey. The problem is that many people never bothered to get that basis, and then they start spouting nonsense like the deacon teaching in your class. I recommend that as soon as you are officially brought into the church this Easter, you go back to the problem parish and volunteer to help run the RCIA program. They clearly need your knowledge to defend truth and keep the program on the straight and narrow.

Because of all this I feel that though I willingly admit I don’t know everything about Catholicism (I’m still busy immersing myself in various histories.) I know everything I need to know to join the Church. When I questioned how exactly this was done, I was told RCIA. I remember listening to a CA program that talked alot about RCIA and I got the immpression from it that it was about instruction in alot of ways. I never expected indepth theology. I expected a little more, however.

You were right to expect a lot more. You certainly deserve not to be taught heresy by one of the instructors.

I expected that when we talked about the readings some from the Team would be able to say “this is how the Church understands this passage” instead of everyone just saying how they personally understand it and what it means personally to them.

Funny you mention this because this morning I was listening to EWTN radio and Father Corapi specifically talked about this very subject. He said it’s great for Catholics to have bible studies, but the problem is when people start blurting out what the scripture personally means to them without bothering to find out how the Church interprets it. We need to read and understand scripture within the context of the Church. The Church authoritatively interprets all scripture.

His most recent offense, which I posted about in Apologetics, was to say that our souls are created and exist with God long before they join our earthly bodies. He said we are “eternal” beings. This is wrong on so many levels. I would have confronted him about it but he ran out of the class immediately after he finished talking.

That’s not Catholic teaching–that is Mormon teaching. This guy needs to never teach another Catholic anything until somebody teaches him first.

 

[G_S]

Well, as parish deacon, I started off the teaching portion of RCIA just last night. The original schedule did not include the Trinity, the Father, or the Holy Spirit. Now it does. I keep it orthodox, heady, intense, and very biblical. Anything less is not only wrong but is unfair a a bit of a rip-off. Imagine a auto mechanics course that barely taught about cars or a basketball coach that mainly explained the rules for baseball.

 

[lux_mundi]

I understand how you feel about one year of RCIA being a very long time. As an unbaptized person I went through the RCIA program at our parish last year. Both catechumens and candidates participated in the program for the entire year. I wouldn’t trade the RCIA experience for anything in the world. I experienced amazing spiritual growth working with the parish priests, catechists, and my fellow brothers and sistes in RCIA. I wanted so badly to receive our Lord in the eucharist during this time but wasn’t able to. This anticpation made the initiation rites at the Easter Vigil even more special. You will find the Easter Vigil to be the most wonderful celebration.

If you aren’t happy with the RCIA program in your parish, I would seek another parish with a dedicated team of catechists and clergy. You will not regret RCIA. Good luck!