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.

Previously, I looked at some of the pitfalls of trying to celebrate a combined Rite of Acceptance and Rite of Welcome. (See Part 1.) In most cases, the celebration fails the “mother test.” That is, the the combined rite itself is not clear enough that the average parishioner—for example, my mother—would be able to clearly understand what is going on.

We said this rite is often celebrated with five different kinds of candidates:

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1. baptized, catechized Catholics
2. baptized, catechized non-Catholic Christians
3. baptized, uncatechized Catholics
4. baptized , uncatechized non-Catholic Christians
5. unbaptized folks

The first step is to celebrate the combined rite only with those it is meant for. That means the first two groups—the catechized candidates—do not belong. There is simply no way to make this ritual make sense if you do it to catechized people. It’s like throwing a bachelor or bachelorette party for married folks. Doesn’t make any sense.

The second step is to take a cue from our Canadian brothers and sisters. They don’t have a combined rite. They celebrate the Rite of Acceptance with the unbaptized and then at some other time they celebrate the Rite of Welcome with the baptized, uncatechized. That makes so much sense! My mother would get that, and so would most parishioners.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many parishes have recently celebrated the combined Rite of Acceptance and Rite of Welcome. The full name of this rite tells you right away it is going to be problematic:

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Celebration of

the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens

and of the Rite of Welcoming Baptized

but previously Uncatechized Adults

who Are Preparing for

Confirmation

and/or Eucharist

or Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church.

I’m tired just reading it.

The introduction to the rite lays out for you an almost impossible goal. Flip open your RCIA text to paragraph 506: “[I]n the celebration of the rites, care must be taken to maintain the distinction between the catechumens and the baptized candidates.”

That sounds deceptively simple. So how did you do? Was the distinction clear? When I ask myself that question, I give myself the “mother” test. I replay the celebration of the ritual in my head. Except I imagine it as though it took place in my mother’s parish. Then I imagine Mom driving home after church and walking into her house. The test is, does she pick up the phone and call me to ask me to explain what happened? Or did she get it from the celebration of the rite itself? If she calls me, the liturgy wasn’t clear. So how was your ritual? Would it pass the mother test?

Here’s why the rite fails the mother test most times. The structure of the rite is designed primarily to deal with unbaptized people. The baptized are then sort of smooshed into a ritual structure that wasn’t originally intended for them. And, to complicate matters, you’ve got all different kinds of baptized people.

Baptized, catechized Catholics

Go re-read the title again. Slowly. The Rite of Welcoming is supposed to be for uncatechized Catholics who are preparing for Confirmation and/or Eucharist. Our parishes are filled with Catholics who missed confirmation somewhere along the way, but they’re going to Communion every Sunday. These folks are catechized. I know they probably can’t name the pope nor name all ten of the commandments. But they are going to Communion, which is the goal of initiation. If your parish is allowing them at the Table, you shouldn’t be allowing them in the catechumenate. And if you leave them out of this rite, it will be clearer to my mother what is going on.

Baptized, catechized non-Catholic Christians

This is the same problem. It’s not a rite for catechized Christians. And even though most of us know that, the majority of the folks who go through the Rite of Welcoming are baptized, catechized Christians who want to become Catholic. Next year, resolve not to do this to them. A ritual that is designed primarily for the uninitiated and imposed on catechized Christians is a subtle display of triumphalism, which the RCIA abhors. If you find another place for these folks, the rite becomes clearer.

Baptized, uncatechized Catholics

Most of these folks started their initiation process as children and dropped out before reaching adulthood. In this category, you have three sub-groups. Those preparing for confirmation. Those preparing for first Communion. And those preparing for both. While this can be an appropriate rite for each of these groups, you still have the challenge of keeping the groups distinct from the non-Catholics and the unbaptized.

Baptized, uncatechized non-Catholic Christians

Right rite, but a logistical, liturgical problem. How do you make it clear to my mother that these folks are essentially different than the unbaptized? Does the ritual make everyone look to Mom like just a big group of folks who want to become Catholic?

Click here for part 2 and discover some ways to make the distinctions clear by adapting the structure of the rite.

Let’s suppose you want to honor the baptized by celebrating their reception into the Catholic Church at the first Sunday Eucharist after they are ready. How do you deal with the pastoral issue that they will feel like they are missing something in comparison with the Elect who will be baptized at the Great Easter Vigil? The key is, from the beginning of their relationship with the parish, to identify them much more closely with the Order of the Faithful than with the Order of the Catechumens. Here are several strategies.

1. Remember the Rite of Welcome is optional. As presented in the RCIA, there are a great many similarities to the Rite of Acceptance. It would help the baptized candidates for reception identify more closely with the faithful if you skipped the Rite of Welcome altogether. Instead, use an adaptation of the very simple Order for the Welcoming of New Parishioners from the Book of Blessings.
2. Separate the candidates for reception and the candidates for baptism into different catechetical groups. Every parish is supposed to have ongoing formation for its members. The baptized candidates can be integrated into that formation process while the catechumens remain in the catechumante. If your parish does not yet have ongoing adult faith formation, use the arrival of the candidates for reception as a spur to start.
3. Set up separate sponsor training. The needs of the baptized will be different than the needs of the unbaptized, and the sponsors for each group will require different skills. The ideal sponsors for the candidates for reception will be Catholics who were baptized as infants and cannot imagine any greater joy than to have Christians all their lives. Their very being should communicate what a great gift the candidates for reception have had all these many years.
4. Do not delay their reception. Baptized candidates may be, and should be, received at any Sunday liturgy. Some will require relatively little catechesis and others significantly more. However, whenever the community discerns a candidate is in fact ready, he or she may be received. If some of the other candidates are not yet ready, their reception would take place after more formation has better prepared them.
5. Be sure to receive all those who are ready before Ash Wednesday so the candidates for reception can participate fully in the initation of the Elect. They should understand their mission as disciples is to “go and baptize,” and not to wish they could get themselves re-baptized.
6. Give these brand new Catholics a major role at the Easter Vigil. They should be right up at the font, helping the Elect into the water, handing them towels as they emerge, escorting them to their chaning rooms, assisting the presider with holding the oils or books during the chrismation, serving as communion ministers, and so on. Yes, there has to also be room for the regular ministers of the parish to serve in these roles, but they could do so as mentors and guides to the new Catholics.
7. Ask the newly received Catholics to help serve as hosts and planners for the reception for the Elect. With the help of their sponsors, the newly received Catholics should project an attitidude that says to the neophytes: “We’re overjoyed that you are now one of us.”

When should baptized candidates be received into the Catholic Church?

Paul Turner in When Other Christians become Catholic, says, “Whenever they are ready” (p. 161).

The National Statues for the Catechumenate say, not “at the Easter Vigil lest there be any confusion of such baptized Christians with the candidates for baptism…” (33).

As I talk to folks about this issue, it seems there are several rationales in play. There are those who think of everyone as somewhat equally on a conversion journey. Believing that, there would seem to be little difference between the faith of a catechumen, a baptized candidate seeking reception into the Catholic Church, and the average Catholic who celebrates Mass every Sunday. There is something to be said for this point of view. After all, if a thousand years is as a single day to God (2 Peter 3:8), what can the meager differences in our faith lives seem like?

Another group of folks would tend to see the catechumens and the candidates for reception as people who have had a religious awakening. They have been led by the Holy Spirit to the Roman Catholic Church because they understand Roman Catholicism to the fullest expression of their newly awakened faith. The catchechumens and the baptized candidates for reception are both groups of seekers joining the Catholic Church.

And there might be a third kind of initiation team that would see the catechumens and the uncatechized baptized candidates for reception as beginners on the faith journey. Those who have been baptized and somewhat catechized (or maybe even well catechized) are different from the beginners in faith and more like the weekly-Mass Catholics.

All of the parishes that would hold any of these views would be accepting baptized Christians into the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil, although the third group might receive only the previously uncatechized Christians.

The difficulty with each of these rationales or descriptions of particular journeys of faith is that they each assumes some level of accomplishment on the part of the individual. Each position presumes the individual has come to some level (or not) of faith that would determine the ritual celebration of his or her movement from one level of status to another.

What is misunderstood in each instance is that faith is a gift—a total, free, and undeserved gift from God. Baptism is the ritual celebration of that gift, and the sacrament of baptism forever and completely changes a person into one of the chosen, a child of God.

Afterwards, one can then become a heretic, an apostate, a backslider, or the next Mother Teresa, but one can never undo God’s choice. There is an actual and real difference between the baptized and the unbaptized. There is no comparable difference between two baptized people of different denominations. Both are heirs to the kingdom and disciples of Christ. Both are bestowed with the full rights, responsibilities, duties, and privileges of those who belong to Christ.

The entire lenten process, which has its culmination in the Great Easter Vigil, is about marking and celebrating the miracle that God has chosen yet again to name another of us as son or daughter. We should not attempt to diminish the mighty act of God by seeming to ignore the fact that the baptized candidates for reception have already been chosen, “lest there be any confusion of such baptized Christians with the candidates for baptism.”