What is wrong with RCIA?

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aroosi

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This is a question that is buzzing in my mind for a while. I have seen these kind of situations in the forum but also in real life.
People going through RCIA or some kind of spiritual formation, converting or reverting after taking their faith very seriously, and a short time after… poof !!! Back to square one.
I understand that there is at play personal freedom and that God’s Grace is working in mysterious ways. Nevertheless I am still wondering, is there anything that could be done differently to support properly the newly converted/reverted?
 
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aroosi said:
People going through RCIA or some kind of spiritual formation, converting or reverting after taking their faith very seriously, and a short time after… poof !!! Back to square one.
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The parable of the sower answers this question.

There is nothing “wrong” with RCIA. RCIA is a collection of liturgical rites for those seeking baptism and full communion with the church.

Human beings guide and catechize catechumens and candidates. Human beings are catechumens and candidates. People are not perfect.
 
The problem in some RCIA classes I’ve seen is that there is not much actual instruction in the Faith, and sometimes even misrepresentation of the Faith. Maybe the pastor should just distribute copies of the Baltimore Catechism at the outset, to help plug up any holes in understanding.
 
My RCIA experience 20 years ago was a mile wide and an inch deep. Most of the classes felt like a sappy teen retreat, and I “graduated” poorly catechized, if catechized at all. I understand that RCIA is supposed to be a launching pad, and we’re responsible for our ongoing self-education and faith formation. But I didn’t even get a bare minimum. Sorry - I know it’s harsh.

I don’t know the answer. I want the RCIA folks to have some freedom in how they run things because there’s no one-size-fits-all for parishes. But some bare-minimum standards would ensure that people coming into the Church know some fundamentals about it.
 
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My experience with RCIA is that after it’s done, you’re done. There’s no effort to help integrate you into the parish, no further challenge, no personal level effort to help anyone connect with church institutions.
 
I think it’s part of the process, to be honest. It seems to be part of the spiritual journey, and short of finding everyone a spiritual director, is going to be hard to manage overall.

I have seen similar, though not identical, situations occur elsewhere. In religious life, I’ve noticed that those who who arrived most zealous for the way of life were also some of the first to leave religious formation. And, way back when I joined the military, the first to try to quit basic training when it got tough were also the ones who arrived the most gung ho and were initially the most outspoken about how awesome they thought the military was and how it was the best decision they ever made…their “bliss” didn’t even last the first week in some cases.

I think at the end of the day, tempered moderation is the key to success when entering into any life-changing processes.
 
RhodesianSon said:
My experience with RCIA is that after it’s done, you’re done. There’s no effort to help integrate you into the parish, no further challenge, no personal level effort to help anyone connect with church institutions.
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I think this is a great point as well. When I taught RCIA, we made an effort to do this, and incorporate as much of the parish community into the program as possible. But, a lot of parishes don’t run RCIA that way. And perhaps they should. Christianity is as much a faith rooted in community as it is in individual faith and practice. Community helps nurture and grow the individual members. Without the Christian community there wouldn’t be a true Christianity passed on since the Apostles
 
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I love your response!

Those who give instruction in RCIA need to be schooled in the Baltimore Catechism!
I believe that many Catholics, who haven’t been schooled in exactly what the Church teaches need to start learning.

With that foundation the teachers can expound in many ways on the various lessons.
 
And in today’s society where most people barely even know their neighbors, and true community ties are next to nonexistent, being able to give that sense of belonging to people would be a great way to convert people.
 
It probably doesn’t help that they keep letting non-Catholics take the classes.

😁 I’m kidding. It’s a joke
 
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blackforest said:
some bare-minimum standards would ensure that people coming into the Church know some fundamentals about it.
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Can you give an example of a “bare minimum standard” or a fundamental that must be known? How does your parish assure that members know these things? How should they?
RhodesianSon said:
My experience with RCIA is that after it’s done, you’re done. There’s no effort to help integrate you into the parish, no further challenge, no personal level effort to help anyone connect with church institutions.
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My experience is that most people do not want the last stage of the process, called mystagogia in the rite. The process culminated in baptism or full communion and everything later is anticlimax.

The questions above apply here as well. How does your parish integrate other people into the parish? People who move in, young adults who move out of their parents home, etc.
 
In the parish I grew up in, RCIA had become a little bit of a joke by the time I was in my teens or so. The parish relied on a couple of young volunteers for this, and those volunteers meant very well, but were poorly catechized themselves; they showed clips from the Left Behind series of movies, and told new RCIA folks that the Rapture was totally a thing that was going to happen.

I know this because my Mom and I sat in on a couple of classes while my niece and nephew were attending, and Mom was aghast. She promptly pointed out a few errors right then and there, and the young couple doing the teaching where aghast themselves at how mistaken they were.

I think a number of parishes rely on volunteers without checking out those volunteers’ credentials, and that’s when you run into trouble.
 
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I think many hard-working and we’ll-meaning lay RCIA volunteers are hobbled by the fact that they themselves are often second-generation victims of the “burlap banner era” in religious education. I know of very few programs actually in use to prepare or certify RCIA instructors.
 
I think the biggest problem with RCIA is that parishes don’t follow what’s in the rite.

For example, in many parishes RCIA starts in September and ends at Easter or shortly after. Nowhere in the book does it say that this is the schedule to be followed. Catechumens should have at least a full year of RCIA – so if they start in September of one year, they wouldn’t be baptized at the following Easter Vigil, but the one after that. How many parishes do that?

Candidates, on the other hand, may be ready to enter the Church after weeks or months in RCIA. There’s no reason for them to wait until Easter if they’re already knowledgeable and ready.

I had one woman in RCIA who was raised by atheists and had no concept of God at all. Her Catholic husband encouraged her to look into it. I’ve also seen people who have been married to Catholics for years and attended Mass every week even though they couldn’t receive communion. If you put these two into a class together, do you really think they would both be ready to enter the Church at the same time?

I think RCIA also has to prepare people for the rest of their Catholic lives. Put them in touch with groups and ministries in the parish so that they continue to have a place to fit in and find support.
 
I am really sorry that that has been your experience. I think a lot of parishes are really bad at this. For the duration of the RCIA course, you are getting a lot of close supervision and contact with other people in the parish, and then once you’re in the Church, all that stops. I have heard of somebody who literally never attended a Catholic church again after the day he was received. That is an extreme case, but there are loads of people who do the course, enter the Church, and drop out after a few months, a year or so. I think the main reason is that a lot of parishes don’t really do anything to make people feel involved.

Where I live, we are considerably outnumbered by Protestant churches, including a lot of the more evangelical variety. One thing I think they manage really well is making church a central part of people’s lives. Sure, I know what a lot of people will say: the Catholic parish can be at the center of your life if you attend daily Mass and so on. Daily Mass is great, but it’s not what keeps a lot of people involved in their church. Some of the evangelical churches have men’s group, women’s group, couples’ group, singles’ group, youth group, young adult group, cell groups, Bible study, theological courses, countless ministries and outreach schemes, not just post-church coffee, but post-church lunches and dinners, church camp, church movie night, and much more. At some of these churches, a significant proportion of your social life could be spent doing church activities, and of course they go twice every Sunday. Several churches ensure that every member of the congregation receives a handwritten birthday card from a dedicated birthday ministry.

Do I think the Catholic Church should become a clone of American evangelicalism? No. Do I think we could learn something from American evangelicalism? Yes.
 
superhancpetram said:
Do I think the Catholic Church should become a clone of American evangelicalism? No. Do I think we could learn something from American evangelicalism? Yes.
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The smartest thing the church could do, is convert some big name preacher, and have him start some kind of lay program to give people the big worship shows and pep talk sermons outside of mass, with orthodox messages and building that community people desperately want. At the same time, keep mass and the rest of smells and bells and sacraments and hierarchy that makes the church Catholic.
 
I can’t speak for other parishes but in my experience when I sponsored someone going through RCIA in the past, it was mostly run by volunteers. In general they taught the basics – but tiptoed and left loopholes open for dissent on some of the teachings many have a hard time with. At times I wasn’t entirely sure if some of the catechumens really fully grasped and accepted what they were being taught, and whether it was being taught clearly. So with that in mind it felt a bit like they were on a conveyor belt, allowed to go through the process regardless of whether they were truly ready, or fully formed or not. As far as support beyond RCIA, I think a lot of it depends on both the convert and the parish. I’ve seen eager converts find their niche in a parish pretty quickly. I imagine particularly vibrant parishes would have more success with converts looking for the next step.
 
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