RCIA seems...strange

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I’m in a similar position to the original poster.

I have been an atheist all of my adult life but over the past 6 months started attending mass and learning about Catholicism.

I’m still waiting on RCIA to start!
 
I can relate, OP. I started RCIA this fall as well, and I was hoping for a deeper, more theological discussion of things. But it’s been pretty light on instruction, and when I spoke with a friend who teaches confirmation classes for the children in another parish, it seems like the kids are getting more in depth instruction than we are. When I ask questions, it’s often brushed off as, “Oh, Vatican II took care of that, don’t worry about it.” We’ve not been given any version of a CCC, either.

Maybe things will become more in-depth after a few weeks of orientation, perhaps. But like others said, I was expecting more.I get a lot more answers from books, this forum, and EWTN than I get in RCIA.
 
I became Catholic through the RCIA program and was blessed to have our Priest teaching the class. However in many parishes, the Priests are too busy to actually teach. We used instructional materials from Ligouri publishing and I still refer to those materials when I have questions.

When I was going thru RCIA and felt like I was maybe too anxious to find answers and that maybe I should back off, I happened to read Proverbs Chapter 2 - and from then on, I knew it was right to WANT answers. For me, Proverbs 2 was validation that it was OK to want more than just the “status quo”, as far as Catholic instruction was concerned 🙂

I just wish our High School students were using better material…My daughter is just post-Confirmation and she dreads going to CYO, as the teacher only wants to teach them about social issues within the Church. They get nothing from either the Bible or the Catechism, which is sad in my opinion, as these kids know very little about their “history” as Catholics or Catholic Doctrine. Ergo, my daughter & I do our own study - at home…
She is currently reading “Catholicism” by Fr. Robert Barron, and I am reading Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s “The Life of Christ”. We also have a Catholic Youth Handbook, which is a great reference to go along with the Catechism.

Stay strong and don’t feel upset that you want MORE - to my way of thinking, your wanting more is God calling you to a closer relationship with Him 👍

God Bless~
~~PR
 
PrairieRose:

That is awesome that your daughter’s reading Catholicism by Robert Barron. Fr. Barron is very knowledgeable and it clearly shows. Just an FYI, if you two can get a hold of his Catholicism DVD series to watch, please do so. I was introduced to Fr. Barron two years ago and his series was my first exposure to his style of teaching. IMHO, the episodes Mary, Mother of God and Word Made Flesh are mind-blowing (especially his description of the Real Presence). The book Life of Christ is incredible as well. Between Sheen and Barron, really you can not go wrong.

And just an aside for the poster that mentioned (can’t recall whether it was you or someone else) the instructor’s focus on social justice, that was my instruction when my (then) priest taught our “classes,” if you can call them that. I can still remember having a seminarian come in one session (our seminary was literally around the corner from where I went to university and got my instruction as an almost-Catholic) teaching us about the Church’s teachings on social justice (my former priest seemed to focus on that almost exclusively).

Also, if you’re inclined you should also look at No Turning Back by Fr. Don Calloway. No Turning Back also is available as a CD and is Fr. Calloway’s conversion story. I was introduced to him through a missionary friend of mine and I keep going back to that CD when I get discouraged or dismayed at the state of Catholicism. My parents and one of my sister’s are Lutheran still and my mom is a Lutheran minister, so you can imagine what kind of uproar happened when I started feeling the tug to “come home,” as Fr. Calloway says.

And to the OP, welcome home!!!:extrahappy:
 
I was fortunate in that my RCIA instructors were orthodox in their teachings. One was our parish Deacon and the other a very nice elderly lady and they both were great! But yeah, the class was very basic. I did a lot of research on The Church before I came into RCIA. Over a years worth. There were only two converts in our class, me being one of them. The rest were taking the class to get their sacraments. So I think our class was maybe a little different in that nobody was only thinking about becoming Catholic. We all either were already Catholic, set on becoming Catholic, or came from Catholic families but were never Baptized. So I would imagine it would be different than if the whole class was only people thinking about converting. Also, I think only 2 people in my class even owned a Bible lol me being one of them. So, obviously the class had to be VERY basic for someone who has never taken in interest in reading The Bible before.

But you will still learn things. If you hear your teacher say something that you think might not be Church teaching, it sounds like you would know how to get the correct answer and compare if you have been doing research on your own. People make mistakes. One of my RCIA teachers once said something that I absolutely knew was not true and I knew that they knew it was not true. It was obvious they just worded what they were trying to say wrong but did not catch it themselves. Stick with it. Maybe it is good that you are in that class because you have done some research and will know when to ask “Is that really Church teaching?” God bless.
 
SayehMahtabi said:
Some background: I am a graduate student who has been an atheist / agnostic for most of my adult life. Over the course of the past year or so, I have learned more about Catholicism and determined that I might want to enter the Church. I decided to attend RCIA in hopes that it would help me grow in faith and add some structure to my learning.

But we have only had two meetings so far, and I have come out of both feeling very confused. What we’re being taught / the spirit of the class does not seem to mesh with what I have read elsewhere. For instance:
  • One of the people in my class (not a baptized Catholic, if it matters) mentioned during our class discussion that he has been taking communion in the Catholic Church for a few months now. The lady in charge said nothing to him about it, but I thought that our taking communion before Easter was unacceptable. If this is the case, why didn’t she clarify for the benefit of anyone there who didn’t know?
  • Our one guest speaker so far talked to us about how “God is love” (this part was fine, I guess) and “God doesn’t judge anyone” (what?!). I had thought that God had a more multifaceted nature - that part of what defines God is that He does judge us, and that He loves us anyway.
Maybe these shouldn’t be big issues, but I’m doing RCIA because I want to learn Church doctrine. The class already feels very uncomfortable to me - like we’re just learning about how ‘nice’ God is, while glossing over the more difficult points.

Am I completely wrong to be worried about this? Should I assume it’s just because we’re early on in the learning process?
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I helped with the RCIA for 14 years in Utah. Bring this to the attention of the RCIA coordinator and do not be shy about it. Hang in there as you inner voice is correct, good discernment. You may even be there for the future of the Church. You someday may be the RCIA Coordinator. Not out of pride…rather necessity.
Rich Horrell
www.utahmission.com
 
You should be able to ask questions if something doesn’t make sense w/out being rude.

(i.e. Wait a minute. I’m confused. I read (or learned or was told) that people can’t take communion in the Church w/out first being baptized and confirmed. Is that really what the church teaches? What’s the story?)

As someone who struggled with this issue before I came into the church, I would have asked the question. I’m sure other people had the same question, but didn’t want to put themselves out there and ask either.

The answer we got in my RCIA class was that she’d invite all that want to worship in our parish as regular members to partake in the Eucharist, regardless of their status as Catholic.

The answer I got from my spouse was “No, you don’t take communion unless you are a confirmed Catholic and make confession, etc.”

Who do you think I’m going to listen to? Which do you think is closer to actual Catholic teaching?

Honestly, I learned more about Catholic teaching from my own readings, CAF and my circle of Catholic friends. RCIA was a good supplement. Towards the end, I only stuck with RCIA because every week got me closer to being Catholic and I didn’t want to wait another year.
 
alexandratm said:
IMaybe things will become more in-depth after a few weeks of orientation, perhaps. But like others said, I was expecting more.I get a lot more answers from books, this forum, and EWTN than I get in RCIA.
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It depends on who’s teaching the class and who’s in the class. From what you said, with the whole “V2 took care of that” makes me think that your parish is moderate to liberal…which is fine (not judging because mine is too) but V2 made a lot of people a lot more lax about rules and tradition.

My RCIA director laments about how people in my generation were turning more traditional after all the work they had done to loosen the church up a bit. (Not those exact words, but you get the idea…)

A lot of people in my class were parents of young kids, so we were told, “we’d pick things up as we taught our kids.”

I also learned (later on CAF) that some of the things I was told were inaccurate/incomplete. It is what it is.
 
Kal2012 said:
It depends on who’s teaching the class and who’s in the class. From what you said, with the whole “V2 took care of that” makes me think that your parish is moderate to liberal…which is fine (not judging because mine is too) but V2 made a lot of people a lot more lax about rules and tradition.

My RCIA director laments about how people in my generation were turning more traditional after all the work they had done to loosen the church up a bit. (Not those exact words, but you get the idea…)

A lot of people in my class were parents of young kids, so we were told, “we’d pick things up as we taught our kids.”

I also learned (later on CAF) that some of the things I was told were inaccurate/incomplete. It is what it is.
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Yes, I think it’s just a more liberal parish, which is fine. On the one hand, it’s a very large parish, with a strong community identity, great school, great priests and deacons - but on the other hand, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping in terms of tradition.

I suppose, once I become Catholic, I can visit other churches for mass and see how they do things. I’m already reading a lot on my own, so it doesn’t matter so much that RCIA is more about community building than education at this point. Like you said, it is what it is.
 
Any class is only as good as its instructor. Perhaps this woman did speak with the guy who has been receiving communion prematurely. If not, this one is so basic I can’t understand the teacher not clarifying this before the entire class. I might want to bring this up to her prviately.
The “God doesn’t judge” matter can cover a lot of meanings/situations. I wouldn’t worry too much about that one.
RCIA is Catholic 101 instruction so I wouldn’t expect much depth. I would stick with it. Once you get the basics that’s when faith starts to blossom as you grow your knowledge and faith through the many facets of Catholic Community, like this forum where I continue to learn every day. Please don’t be discouraged.
 
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