One of the little-known (and oft-ignored) directives of the U.S. National Statutes for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is found in number 2, which states unambiguously that baptized Christians who are received into the full communion of the Catholic Church are NOT to be called converts. The term convert is to be strictly reserved for those who pass from non-belief to Christian belief.

What’s going on here?

This is one of the places where the American bishops, via the National Statutes, aim to practice the ecumenism the Second Vatican Council preached—an ecumenism still only gradually being incarnated in our day-to-day experience of the Church today, more than forty years after the Council.

The thinking goes like this: Anyone who is baptized is a member of Christ’s Body, the Church. Now to be sure, baptized individuals have an ongoing spiritual journey, and there are moments of spiritual awakening and promptings of the Spirit along the way. These experiences may lead an individual to enter the full communion of the Catholic Church. But they don’t make her a convert, because she already belongs to Christ.

All the baptized are called to ongoing conversion, but to be termed a convert is to say that you converted to Christ. In the immortal words of Ron Oakham, speaking on how the ritual text uses these words, “Conversion is not to Catholicism; it’s to Christ.”

Sadly, the word convert is still the only term in the English dictionary for members of other Christian communions who have become Catholic. The word is short. It’s handy. But we should save it for those whom it more aptly describes.

Apparently, Pope Benedict XVI was looking for ways to celebrate Saint Paul’s 2,000th birthday. After the Vatican Fire Marshal nixed the idea of a giant cake with 2,000 candles (the pope may be infallible, but not inflammable), the pontiff decided to declare this “The Pauline Year.” The festivities begin on June 29, 2008 and run through June 29, 2009. What festivities, you ask? Well, the Vatican is just a little tight-lipped about that. Never fear. TeamRCIA is stepping into the breach with nine ways to celebrate. (All of these suggestions have been safety-rated for catechumens.)

• Focus on the Easter Vigil epistle for the year (Romans 6:3-11). Have the catechumens memorize it. Make it the reading for your lector training. Have the lectors memorize it too. Ask the school children and the kids in the catechetical program to write an essay or poem or song about it.
• Preach on the second reading (when it is from Paul) more often this year. Focus the breaking open of the word sessions on the second reading more often. Write a weekly reflection question for the parish bulletin based on the second reading.
• Sing the Pauline canticles more often. Ask choir members, cantors, and the worshiping assembly to memorize one or two of them.
• Do you have stained glass windows in your parish? Or does a nearby parish? Is one of the images of Saint Paul? Take a field trip with the catechumens (and anyone else who wants to join in), and do a “breaking open of the glass” with them. (Don’t forget “breaking” is a metaphor!)
• Make pilgrimages to the parishes in your diocese named after Paul. You might want to call ahead. What’s a pilgrimage without some coffee and cookies waiting for you?
• Since the Feast of the Conversion of Paul is not only a Sunday this year but is also the event around which the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is planned every year, make a greater effort at building ecumenical relationships this year.
• Paul was all about conversion-his own and others’. Find a place on your parish Web site, Facebook group, or during coffee and doughnuts to share how you got knocked off your horse. (Which, as every good catechist knows, didn’t actually happen to Saint Paul. But it is a good image of conversion.)
• Throw a Paul party. Everybody named Paul, Pauline, or Pablo gets to be the guests of honor. However, they all have to tell the story of how they got their name.
• Create a parish book where people can write out their favorite verse from one of Saint Paul’s letters. In fact, let’s do that here. Click on the comments link and tell us the line from Paul that inspires you. Or share your own ideas for celebrating The Pauline Year.

QI was wondering if you could give some guidance about sacramental preparation for older children (baptized Catholic, but formally uncatechized) 3rd grade and above, since there is little consistency among parishes within our diocese.

In most cases, these children (primarily 3rd-6th grade) have had no formal catechesis and have not celebrated first confession or first communion. Some of the parishes integrate them into a regular religious education program and use a two-year process, which would include sacramental preparation in the second year (for first confession and first communion only and confirmation later, usually in the 8th grade).

Many parishes place them in an RCIA program with some sacramental preparation for first confession and first communion in the second year, but they are not confirmed.

Then, there are some parishes that place them in an RCIA program, and they do receive all sacraments at the Easter Vigil; there is a distinction made at the Vigil between the neophytes and candidates.

Any thoughts or suggestions on what the best direction to go might be?

AOh my, what a tangle! Unless you are a diocesan employee, I think you have to focus on what is right for your parish. It might be better if all the parishes in your diocese had a uniform policy, but that may not be a problem you can solve. So what’s at stake here?

Read the rest of this entry »

In your RCIA process, do your catechumens and baptized candidates know the difference between Eucharist and communion? Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Center recently released a pastoral letter in which he ended his diocese’s practice of celebrating communion services in place of weekday or Sunday Mass. His reason for doing so was, partly, because he thought the celebration of communion services caused people to misunderstand the difference between Eucharist and communion.

This is how he described the difference: Read the rest of this entry »

QOur church has just added over 100 children (candidates), 9 to 17-years-old, into the RCIA program. I have not been able to find information on discerning these baptized children. I am fairly new to the team and am finding discernment of children, or rather more specifically trying to determine when and who is ready, very frustrating. I hope you can provide me with some pointers to help make this process easier.

AWow! That’s a lot of children, and quite an age range. I think your first step is to do a little sorting. Are any of these children approaching your parish on their own, or are their parents also in a process of reception? For those whose parents are also in the process, I would focus on discerning the readiness of the family and not focus exclusively on the children.

For those children that are closer to the 17-years-old end of the spectrum, you can treat their discernment as you would the discernment of an adult.

The basics of a discernment process can be found in paragraph 75 of the RCIA. The criteria there are meant for unbaptized adults, but they can be adapted to anyone, at any age. Briefly, you want to see growth in

1. the way the candidates hear the word of God and understand the tradition of the church
2. the way the candidates pray and worship
3. the way the candidates participate in and contribute to the parish community
4. the way the candidates care for the poor and for those who have never heard the Good News

For a more detailed discussion of discernment, check out these links:

• RCIA Discernment: What is it and how do you do it?
• Do you know the three Rs of RCIA discernment?
• RCIA Discernment: How do you know if they “know enough”?

There is lots more that could be said about discernment, and I’m going to open the discussion up for comments to see what other wisdom is out there.

Click here to check out a description of the process used in a small, rural parish to welcome two baptized candidates into full communion. It looks pretty good to me. I loved this line:

We reflected long and hard on the appropriate moment for reception, and decided against using any form of combined rite at the Easter Vigil - ‘anything that would equate candidates for reception with those who are catechumens is to be absolutely avoided’. (RCIA 391 UK) - choosing rather to go with the very simple ceremony of the Rite of Reception within Mass.

What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement? Anything you would have done differently in your parish?

QWe have two people in the catechumenate process this year. One person is unbaptized. The other was baptized as a Catholic but has had no religious formation whatsoever. We have been dismissing both of them each week to break open the word. However, my pastor is telling me the second person should not dismissed because he is already baptized. I disagree with him. Who is right?

AThere is no uniform practice on this. Many parishes dismiss both the catechumens and the baptized candidates, just as you are. However, my preference is to only dismiss the unbaptized. I agree with your pastor that baptized people should remain in the assembly for the entire liturgy.

The reason I believe this is because there is more to Eucharist than communion. Even though the baptized candidates cannot receive communion, they can, and should, participate in the offering the sacrifice through their participation in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This is as catechetical as breaking open the word would be.

The reason we dismiss catechumens is not simply to give them more time for breaking open the word or for catechesis. It is because they are not yet members of the Order of the Faithful and therefore cannot yet offer the sacrifice of the Mass through their prayer.

In addition, by dismissing the unbaptized and keeping the baptized in the liturgy, we are also catechizing the rest of the assembly about the importance and dignity of baptism.

The actual texts of the RCIA would seem to support this. If you look at the combined rites that include both catechumens and baptized candidates, only the catechumens are dismissed. See, for example, paragraphs 527-529, 544-546, and 559-561.

The preparation rites on Holy Saturday include an optional ritual for choosing a baptismal name (turn to paragraph 200 in your RCIA text to follow along). In the United States, we do not ask the elect to do this. (Keep a finger in the book to mark your place and flip back to paragraph 33.4.) The United States bishops have said that there is to be no giving of a new name. This is the norm for every diocese. However an individual bishop can make an exception if one of the elect comes from a culture in which it is the practice of non-Christian religions to give a new name.

Now flip back to paragraph 200. Note the final sentence in that paragraph.

Where it seems better suited to the circumstances and the elect are not too numerous, the naming may consist simply in an explanation of the given name of each of the elect.

So while you would not ask your Britneys, Tiffanys, and Jamals to choose a new name, you could easily celebrate and bless their given names as an expression of God’s delight in them. Miriam Malone, SNJM, has provided a very simple and doable example of this in her Holy Saturday Retreat and Preparation Rites outline (click here).

Confirmation names

While we’re on the subject, let’s discuss confirmation names. There are three groups of people who are involved here, and let’s look at each one. Read the rest of this entry »

QHow ought a Russian Orthodox person be received into the Catholic Church? The convert has undergone RCIA and been elected in the cathedral. Our pastor seems to be unfamiliar with the status of Russian Orthodox sacraments. For example, is confirmation is necessary? Presumably the bishop would ultimately decide?

AIf you open your RCIA text to paragraph 473, you’ll find everything you need. All that is required of an Orthodox Christian is a profession of faith. You would not celebrate confirmation with the Orthodox person, who was presumably confirmed at his baptism. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes the validity of Orthodox confirmation. One interesting thing to note is that even if the Orthodox person is received in a Roman Catholic parish, he is not received into the Roman Catholic Church. He is received into the parallel Eastern Catholic Church. In this case, your candidate would be received into the Russian Catholic Church — which is in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. If your candidate wishes to be a Roman Catholic, he must apply to the Apostolic See. However, he can worship as a full member of your parish, including Eucharist, as a Russian Catholic.

There is no need for the bishop to approve his reception. Your pastor has full authority to receive the person.

An Orthodox Christian would not be referred to as a convert, nor would he participate in the Rite of Election. If you flip to the back of the RCIA and look at paragraph 2 of the National Statutes for the Catechumenate, you’ll see that the term “convert” is reserved only for those who convert from unbelief to belief — not for Christians changing denominations.

QWe have a candidate preparing to celebrate the Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. This person was baptized and confirmed as a Lutheran. Do we recognize Lutheran Confirmations as valid sacraments? Or do we confirm him at the Easter Vigil?

AFrom John Huels’ book, The Catechumenate and the Law: A Pastoral and Canonical Commentary for the Church in the United States, Liturgy Training Publications, 1994, p 24:

Confirmation is valid only in those churches that have the valid sacrament of holy orders. Besides the separated Eastern churches, this would include the Old Catholic, Old Roman Catholic, and Polish National Churches. The Protestant denominations are not recognized as having valid orders, so persons baptized in those ecclesial communities should be confirmed during the rite of reception into full communion.

However, the other question you could also ask is: Should you celebrate the rite of reception at the Easter Vigil? Some points to ponder:

Anything that would equate candidates for reception with those who are catechumens is to be absolutely avoided. (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, 477)

The commentary on The Code of Canon Law, commenting on canon 206 regarding catechumens, makes these distinctions between candidates and catechumens:

• “[B]aptized non-Catholics who seek full communion with the Catholic Church are not catechumens or ‘converts,’ although they are moved by the Spirit and have an explicit will to join the Church.”
• “They are not, however, to be exorcised or to receive other elements of the liturgical rites involved in baptism, since they are already baptized.”
• “No greater burdens are to be imposed on them than are necessary for them to come into full communion.”

Back to the initiation documents…

Those who have already been baptized in another Church or ecclesial community should not be treated as catechumens or so designated. Their doctrinal and spiritual preparation for reception into full Catholic communion should be determined according to the individual case, that is, it should depend on the extent to which the baptized person has led a Christian life within a community of faith and been appropriately catechized to deepen his or her inner adherence to the Church (”National Statutes for the Catechumenate,” 30)

This means that a baptized Christian who wants to become Catholic and has been faithfully participating in a Christian community (not necessarily a Catholic community), who lives a Christian (not necessarily Catholic) lifestyle, and who has been catechized in order to deepen his or her resolve to live as a Christian disciple in the Catholic Church is ready to celebrate the Rite of Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church.

When could reception take place then?

The reception of candidates into the communion of the Catholic Church should ordinarily take place at the Sunday Eucharist of the parish community, in such a way that it is understood that they are indeed Christian believers who have already shared in the sacramental life of the Church and are now welcomed into the Catholic eucharistic community upon their profession of faith and confirmation, if they have not been confirmed, before receiving the eucharist. (”National Statutes for the Catechumenate,” 32)

Further…

It is preferable that reception into full communion not take place at the Easter Vigil lest there be any confusion of such baptized Christians with the candidates for baptism, possible misunderstanding of or even reflection upon the sacrament of baptism celebrated in another Church or ecclesial community, or any perceived triumphalism in the liturgical welcome into the Catholic eucharistic community. (”National Statutes for the Catechumenate,” 33)

In other words, if a baptized Christian is faithfully participating in the Sunday assembly of the Catholic Church, is living a Christian lifestyle, and is adhering to the Catholic teaching, they may be received into full communion as soon as possible—even at the next possible Sunday celebration. They need not wait until the Easter Vigil to be received.