Who in RCIA should received the sacrament of Reconciliation

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FrDavid96 said:
arate those 2 reali
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Father, I really appreciate you comments on this. Several years ago, when this forum was more heavily moderated, I was “scolded” by a moderated in a private message for suggesting it made no sense for baptized Christians to have to wait until the arbitrary date of Easter Vigil to come into the Church and go to confession and receive communion. I was told that such criticisms of the Church were not allowed. I suspect the moderator was a convert who really liked his/her RCIA program and did not appreciate my comments on the subject. I thought I was correct, but it was just a gut feel, I didn’t know the details of RCIA. I probably did get a couple of details wrong, but that certainly isn’t unusual.
 
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Our candidates do go to confession before the Easter Vigil service.
 
tafan2 said:
Father, I really appreciate you comments on this. Several years ago, when this forum was more heavily moderated, I was “scolded” by a moderated in a private message for suggesting it made no sense for baptized Christians to have to wait until the arbitrary date of Easter Vigil to come into the Church and go to confession and receive communion. I was told that such criticisms of the Church were not allowed. I suspect the moderator was a convert who really liked his/her RCIA program and did not appreciate my comments on the subject. I thought I was correct, but it was just a gut feel, I didn’t know the details of RCIA. I probably did get a couple of details wrong, but that certainly isn’t unusual.
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That’s odd, because your position is exactly what the Church says in the RCIA rubrics.
 
I am not claiming to be fault free, I do not remember the details, it is certainly possible my wording was a little “blunt”.
 
FrDavid96 said:
The 2 ideas of
–being a full member of the Church
–being eligible to receive the Sacraments (of Confession, Confirmation, Eucharist)

are really one and the same. If a person is a full member, then he may receive the Eucharist. If he is not yet ready to receive Communion, then he’s not a member.
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We are making just that distinction by asking them to go to classes. If we don’t want to make that distinction, we should allow them to receive the Eucharist while they are being catechized. We already make that distinction with infants, with remarried people, and with others who undertake lengthy penances. They are all members who cannot receive the Eucharist.

In any event, my point is that Reconciliation, which has been known as a second baptism, should be joined to confirmation and eucharist to give a fuller appreciation of the unity of baptism, confirmation and eucharist.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore expresses the distinction in a prayer for dismissal of the candidates from the rite of Welcome:

My dear candidates, although you are already baptized, and so belong with us here to share in our preparation of the eucharistic table, you have agreed that you would benefit from an extended reflection upon the word of God. So we send you forth to continue this reflection. We look forward to the time when you will join us for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
 
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When I started RCIA (candidate ) I was already “Catholic” in believes for about 20 years prior. The only thing that was new to me during the catechism classes were that we could experience God through art. The rest I already new and believed. What was most important during the two years that RCIA takes in the parish where I was received were the individual meetings that we were asked to have with a priest, deacon, brother or sister to talk about things that isn’t everybody else´s business. Growing to love God more and what/who stops you for doing it.

Second year was digging more deeply into the Catholic faith and how to start living it in a very secular society. My guess why this parish has a two year preparation time for all, is that it takes time to stand with booth feet on the ground in a society that is very much completely opposite to what the Catholic Church teaches and believes. It is also a matter of remaining Catholic when you are the only one at work or school and non Catholics are verbally attacking you even when they visit a Catholic church. It also takes time to get to know people in the parish and become a part of parish life.

Even though candidates are already baptised and should know something about Christianity there are a lot who know nothing. Not even why we are baptised in the first place and what a baptism is and isn’t. I guess that is why everyone is put together in one group and the priests and deacons who teach RCIA will know that everyone has received instruction and that the question “What is the trinity you talk about?” isn’t asked at the end.

Someone said that candidates “become” Catholics when they go to Confession. But since that is not a public event it is officially during Mass.
 
Dovekin said:
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FrDavid96:
The 2 ideas of
–being a full member of the Church
–being eligible to receive the Sacraments (of Confession, Confirmation, Eucharist)

are really one and the same. If a person is a full member, then he may receive the Eucharist. If he is not yet ready to receive Communion, then he’s not a member.
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We are making just that distinction by asking them to go to classes. If we don’t want to make that distinction, we should allow them to receive the Eucharist while they are being catechized. We already make that distinction with infants, with remarried people, and with others who undertake lengthy penances. They are all members who cannot receive the Eucharist.

In any event, my point is that Reconciliation, which has been known as a second baptism, should be joined to confirmation and eucharist to give a fuller appreciation of the unity of baptism, confirmation and eucharist.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore expresses the distinction in a prayer for dismissal of the candidates from the rite of Welcome:

My dear candidates, although you are already baptized, and so belong with us here to share in our preparation of the eucharistic table, you have agreed that you would benefit from an extended reflection upon the word of God. So we send you forth to continue this reflection. We look forward to the time when you will join us for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
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Either they’re members of the Church or they are not.

The Rite of Welcoming does not make them members. Instead, it is a step in the process of becoming members of the Church.

That’s exactly why the words at the end of the Rite are there "We look forward to the time when you will join us for the …Eucharist.

They cannot yet partake in Communion. Why? Because they’re not yet members. Once they become members, then they do partake in Communion (and of course, Confirmation, but that only happens once).

Of course, I’ll agree with you on the connection of Confession to the other sacraments. The Church does expect (indeed require) that Confession happen as preparation for First Communion and Confirmation.
 
FrDavid96 said:
you are already baptized, and so belong with us here to share in our preparation of the eucharistic table, you have agreed that you would benefit from an extended reflection upon the word of God.
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I am not sure how it could be any clearer. They belong with us (because they are members) but have chosen “extended reflection” in preparation. Baptism is usually the sacrament that bestows membership. (The dismissal prayer is an adaptation by somebody, Baltimore maybe. The rite says they should not be dismissed.)

This is just about the uncatechized. Most members of other denominations should be received promptly, as you have said. As a catechist, I often wonder what I am doing ‘teaching’ some of the people who come to us.
 
I had a unique RCIA experience as I split it between my home parish in Pennsylvania and my winter home parish in Florida. Even though I’d been a Protestant up until two years ago and had attended Catholic mass many times with friends and my wife, I found RCIA to be very valuable. I actually didn’t decide to convert until several months into RCIA and most of my questions had been answered.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
By received before Vigil, are you referring to the Rite of Election? If so, we do our Rite of Election a month before Vigil.
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Can anyone help with this question? Is it the Rite of Election that actually makes me a member of the church?

My parish hasn’t explained all the rites to us yet…
 
No. I was not able to make the Rite of Election when I was in RCIA. No one had a problem with it.
 
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They haven’t mentioned any distinctions like this at my parish. I am the only one that has never been baptized. There are only 3 of us that are non catholic in RCIA (small parish). So since I have never been baptized, the sacrament of baptism will wash away all my sins? So when I do go to confession, I will only have to confess sins committed post baptism?
 
Exactly! When you are baptized you become a new creation in Christ.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
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mrsdizzyd:
By received before Vigil, are you referring to the Rite of Election? If so, we do our Rite of Election a month before Vigil.
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Can anyone help with this question? Is it the Rite of Election that actually makes me a member of the church?

My parish hasn’t explained all the rites to us yet…
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No.

Being received into the Church is what makes one a member.

For the non-baptised, this happens at Baptism (by a Catholic priest).

For those baptised non-Catholic, this happens when they are received into the Church in a particular rite (the proper name escapes me at the moment).
 
nightshade said:
They haven’t mentioned any distinctions like this at my parish. I am the only one that has never been baptized. There are only 3 of us that are non catholic in RCIA (small parish). So since I have never been baptized, the sacrament of baptism will wash away all my sins? So when I do go to confession, I will only have to confess sins committed post baptism?
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It’s likely they will talk about it at some point (they should!). We haven’t discussed it in my RCIA class yet either, mostly because we haven’t gotten to the discussion of the sacraments yet. But I do bring it up.

To go back to the OP’s question, Fr. David has already answered it well. I’ll just add that in my parish, the candidates receive their First Reconciliation on the Wednesday of Holy Week. Although I have a new pastor now, so we’ll see if he has other ideas. 🙂
 
Your profession of Faith and Confirmation will make you a member of the Church. That is done most often at the Easter Vigil for various reasons (see above discussion). You will then receive your first Holy Eucharist.
 
This is an interesting thread. I was in RCIA at my parish in 2002-2003. At the time it seemed like they were more interested in not scaring anyone off instead of giving us a firm grounding in the Catholic faith. I was a member of a very orthodox online Catholic forum as well. It was there that I got the idea that baptized adults were required to go to confession before receiving our first Holy Eucharist.

When I found out that we weren’t required to make our first confession before our first Communion I kind of flipped out. Unfortunately my computer was broke and I couldn’t go online to ask my Catholic internet community about it. I did go have a talk with my pastor, and he offered me the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but I refused. I told him a few things, but not everything.

At any rate, for all these years I felt like I was cheated out of my first confession and I still have these tiny, nagging doubts about my first Eucharist. I wonder if the event was somehow diminished by my not having gone to confession prior.

Shortly after I was confirmed I did go make my first confession. After reading this thread, however, I’m still a little confused as to whether baptized adults are required to make their first confession before receiving their first Holy Eucharist.
 
We will be making our first confession before first communion. It’s a requirement for us.

I don’t know if that helps.
 
“Required” to go to confession – no. I don’t have the book in front of me at the moment but it says something like “in accordance with their conscience.”

Personally, I think the answer is that you go to confession before receiving your First Communion. If nothing else, it means you’ve had that experience at least once. More importantly, it is part of the preparation people should make before receiving communion. We have always strongly encouraged people to go.
 
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