Why is RCIA Only Offered Once/Year?

[TrueLight]

A simple solution would be to have the RCIA team be available year round. Not necessarily to teach, but to be in contact with people. Also letting newcomers know who to seek out. We have a nice little informal system; “by the percussion stuff you’ll see a guy in a Core shirt. After Mass he’ll be holding onto a one year old boy. Talk to him about wanting to receive Sacraments”.

Done and done, they’ve found someone to talk to and to welcome them into the community.

Having a “newcomers” ministry wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

 

[TrueLight]

So everyone who wants changes made is going to go to their parish and volunteer to help right?

Seriously though, our RCIA is run by volunteers, and there is never enough people willing to invest themselves into the process (you put a lot more into it than just the time for the classes themselves after all). If you want things to be different, then find out who runs the RCIA at your parish and volunteer to help. Or, if you are not yet part of the Church, volunteer next year I went through RCIA last year, and now I volunteer helping with the hospitality for our group. And besides, as converts ourselves, who better to understand the struggles of new converts?

My parish is very small and we don’t have RCIA. We have instruction by a priest.

But if I notice someone new in the coffee hour, I do make an effort to welcome them and talk to them a bit. Like I said before, I would be very interested in adopting someone who is interested. I think I will bring this up to the pastor when I next see him.

 

[Phemie]

My parish is very small and we don’t have RCIA. We have instruction by a priest.

But if I notice someone new in the coffee hour, I do make an effort to welcome them and talk to them a bit. Like I said before, I would be very interested in adopting someone who is interested. I think I will bring this up to the pastor when I next see him.

TrueLight, this is a common misunderstanding about what RCIA is.

RCIA is all about ritual - Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. The Rite does not dictate HOW the the converts/candidates are instructed (group or private preparation), it dictates what happens in the parish and diocese while the converts are prepared. The Rites should be followed regardless of the method of preparation/teaching.

The RCIA consists of Periods and Steps

• Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate (for many, this would be the period when they came to Mass with a Catholic spouse).
• First Step: Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens (Rites: Exorcism and Renunciation of False Worship; Giving of a New Name; some regional optional rites)
• Period of the Cathechumenate
• Second Step: Election or Enrollment of Names
• Period of Purification and Enlightenment (These rites take place during Lent and include: First Scrutiny; Presentation of the Creed; Second Scrutiny; Third Scrutiny; Presentation of the Lord’s Prayer; Preparation Rites on Holy Saturday [Recitation of the Creed; Ephpheta Rite; Choosing a Baptismal Name; Anointing with the Oil of Cathechumens; Concluding Rites]
• Third Step: Celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation
• Period of Postbaptismal Catechesis or Mystegogy.

We’ve only had one catechumen in our parish in the last 15 years. She was 9 when she started and she was instructed privately for over a year before she was baptized at the Easter Vigil. Her dad & step dad were Catholics but she had never been baptized. After her siblings were baptized, as ‘infants’ as understood by the Church, she asked to be baptized too. All these rites were done with her and the parish knew who she was from the day she was formally enrolled in the Order of Catechumens at a Sunday Mass and they followed her progress through to the Vigil.

As you can see, the RCIA is not for those who ask to be received into full communion. Although in most parishes they are lumped in with those who are not baptized for instruction, ideally this should not happen and they should be received into the Church when they are ready, some take longer, some take a very short time. No baptized person should be made to wait an entire year to be received if they are ready long before that.

 

[TrueLight]

TrueLight, this is a common misunderstanding about what RCIA is.

RCIA is all about ritual - Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. The Rite does not dictate HOW the the converts/candidates are instructed (group or private preparation), it dictates what happens in the parish and diocese while the converts are prepared. The Rites should be followed regardless of the method of preparation/teaching.

The RCIA consists of Periods and Steps

• Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate (for many, this would be the period when they came to Mass with a Catholic spouse).
• First Step: Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens (Rites: Exorcism and Renunciation of False Worship; Giving of a New Name; some regional optional rites)
• Period of the Cathechumenate
• Second Step: Election or Enrollment of Names
• Period of Purification and Enlightenment (These rites take place during Lent and include: First Scrutiny; Presentation of the Creed; Second Scrutiny; Third Scrutiny; Presentation of the Lord’s Prayer; Preparation Rites on Holy Saturday [Recitation of the Creed; Ephpheta Rite; Choosing a Baptismal Name; Anointing with the Oil of Cathechumens; Concluding Rites]
• Third Step: Celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation
• Period of Postbaptismal Catechesis or Mystegogy.

We’ve only had one catechumen in our parish in the last 15 years. She was 9 when she started and she was instructed privately for over a year before she was baptized at the Easter Vigil. Her dad & step dad were Catholics but she had never been baptized. After her siblings were baptized, as ‘infants’ as understood by the Church, she asked to be baptized too. All these rites were done with her and the parish knew who she was from the day she was formally enrolled in the Order of Catechumens at a Sunday Mass and they followed her progress through to the Vigil.

As you can see, the RCIA is not for those who ask to be received into full communion. Although in most parishes they are lumped in with those who are not baptized for instruction, ideally this should not happen and they should be received into the Church when they are ready, some take longer, some take a very short time. No baptized person should be made to wait an entire year to be received if they are ready long before that.

Okay, it’s possible that the catechumens at the parish go through the same rite. I only know a couple of people who were received this year and they were already baptized Christians. And my parish has both the OF and the EF.

I’m not so sure, however, that traditional parishes like the FSSP go through all those rites even with Catechumens. These rites were restored after VAT II were they not?