RCIA

[KarrollKid04]

Happy Easter!

I had a question about conversion to the Church. I know that RCIA is a fairly new thing (I think it came about in the 70s but I could be wrong). Anyways, what was the process for converting to the Catholic Church prior to Vatican II? Was there a similar rite? Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide insight.

John

 

[1ke]

RCIA is actually an “old thing”. It was the normative way adults entered the Church in the first centuries of the Church.

After the known world was Christianized, infants born into Christian families were baptized and the need for a process to bring adults into the Church on a large scale was no longer needed. For individuals who came into the Church, they received instruction from their priest or from religious sisters and were then initiated, but the rites of the catechumenate were not used.

Success in the mission fields and increasing conversions from other Christian denominations inspired the Church to revive the ancient rites.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

And to add on to what 1KE said, in the US, at least, what was common prior to the re-institution of the catechumenate was “convert classes” where people would study for a period of time prior to becoming Catholic. Unfortunately, many parishes have barely progressed past this model, even today.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Prior to the current RCIA programs converts were often given private instruction from the catechism then admitted to the sacraments in a small individual ceremony. RCIA introduced a heavy emphasis on drawing the catechumens into community both in the classes and in the public nature of the admission ceremonies; the Community of the Faithful vs the Me and Jesus approach.

 

[Karen107]

When my mother married my father in 1943 just before my dad was sent off to Normandy beach as a doc medic she received a small amount of instruction by the Priest who married them and she was asked to confess her sins. Coming from a Southern Baptist background where they didn’t do this she was caught off guard and said “I don’t have any sins to confess”… Well I know my mom and I believe she was right… hehe…I believe my mom was truly a Saint. She raised ten kids in the Catholic faith almost effortlessly!! :getholy: God bless…

 

[thequeen]

Back in the early nineties I received private instruction from a priest for over a year I was baptized conditionally and confirmed on a Friday in a private gathering with just the priests and my sponsor and received the Eucharist for the first time that following sunday during a regularly scheduled mass in which my priest instructor was the celebrant.

 

[Edmundus1581]

Prior to the current RCIA programs converts were often given private instruction from the catechism then admitted to the sacraments in a small individual ceremony. RCIA introduced a heavy emphasis on drawing the catechumens into community both in the classes and in** the public nature of the admission ceremonies; the Community of the Faithful vs the Me and Jesus approach.**

:yup:

Also, the RCIA just slows down the process, and ensures that the candidate understands Catholicism before being received.

I was received into the church in 1981, in the manner you described. I performed my own research over several months and near the end started talking to a priest. One day I phoned him up and told him I was ready to be received into the Church and about a week later I made my first confession and we had a small ceremony with my family and several friends. The ceremony came as a surprise to me and I only picked a sponsor a day before.

In 1985 I was engaged to a Anglican woman and she chose to become a Catholic and, after a brief period of study, was received into the church in a similar way.

The essence of the ceremony was: A public profession of faith (“I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God”), Confirmation, and the Eucharist.

My decision to be become a Catholic was well-informed and I stuck with it, however my fiance’s was not and she found it easy to reject Catholicism when it suited her, after our marriage.

I didn’t hear of RCIA in Australia until the mid 90’s. It seems to be a much better way of receiving people into the Church and might have saved myself and my ex-wife a lot of trouble.

 

[powerofk]

And today, due to secularization, the need for proper RCIA instruction has never been greater, as there are now huge numbers of “cultural Catholics” who have never been baptized. And there are also large groups of people who have never even heard of Jesus or the Gospel - even in areas which are nominally Christian.

Honestly, I think a large part of the change occured with the full restoration of the Easter Vigil (which happened pre-Vatican II by, I think Pius XII?).

 

[Edmundus1581]

My conversion was heavily influenced by Cardinal John Henry Newman’s account of his own conversion in the book Apologia Pro Vita Sua. In this book his conversion is mostly a private matter over several years, until the moment that he becomes convinced, at which point he immediately contacts a Catholic priest and is received into the Church on the same evening (after confession).

Hence, that is the format I expected for reception into the Church, and the small public ceremony, after a week’s delay, was more formal than I expected!

Many converts have been influenced by Newman’s Apologia and probably had similar expectations to myself.

 

[corsair]

Joe Kelley is correct. I was Baptized a Catholic in February of 1970. My instruction was given by a Catholic priest at weekly one on one sessions. I recieved my first communion on a Sunday morning before Mass. Most of the Liturgy was still in Latin, although shortly after that the “bulldozer” came through and I couldn’r recoginize the Mass anymore.

I even taught my own Conformation class (1974) because there was no one else willing to do it. yep, I was one of 10 or eleven to be confirmed by the Bishop. I had virtually no assistance or advise from the priest. Talk about “winging it”. I used the Baltimore Catechism for lack of anything else.

It has work for me at least.