If you look up in the menu bar, you’ll see that TeamRCIA recently posted a glossary. And if you take a look in the glossary, you’ll see that one of the terms listed there is “RCIC.” I debated about whether to include it, because there is no such thing. Still, a lot of people use the term, so practicality won out over precision.

If your parish has an “RCIC,” I mean no offense. And you probably have a wonderful process for children that converts them to deep faith in Christ. But one thing no parish has is a Rite of Christian Initiation of Children. Because there is no such rite. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

You know who they are. They’re the ones who keep coming back week after week long after the Easter Vigil and Pentecost are over. They light up anytime someone mentions the RCIA or the catechumenate or becoming Catholic. They want to be sponsors even before they’ve gotten the Chrism smell off their pillow case.

They’re the neophyte evangelist, those newly-initiated who are not only living breathing proof of the resurrection but also walking billboards for the RCIA. They are your greatest fans and your number one supporters.

The RCIA process is not a one-way street that shapes only the catechumen into a disciple. It’s a mutual formation in the life of Christ that changes both the catechumen and the parish. That mutual relationship is evident when a neophyte feels called to share his experience of transformation with others. Essentially, this neophyte is doing faith-sharing, exactly what the catechumenate taught him to do and what all the baptized are called to do.

Some parishes invite neophytes to share their experience with the rest of the parish some time after their initiation. It’s best to give a neophyte time to process for himself or with a small group what he experienced and what it meant (mystagogy) before you ask him to speak to the assembly at a Sunday Mass about his experience. They might speak during the announcements or before Mass begins or even at coffee and donuts after Mass.

But don’t limit yourself to just the Sunday gathering as the venue for evangelization. Neophytes who are more comfortable writing their thoughts can provide a brief reflection for the bulletin or your parish Web site. Or better yet, record their reflection and put it on your parish Web site or blog just like Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Davison, Michigan, did with their neophytes.

Click the audio button above to listen to one of their neophytes, Michael McCarty, talk about his initiation experience.

(Thanks to Michael McCarty and Elaine Ouelette, Director of RCIA and Family Faith Formation for their permission to include this testimony on TeamRCIA.com. Go to Saint John the Evangelist’s RCIA Web site to hear more testimonies.)

Imagine an entire CD filled with reflections like Michael’s from your neophytes, sponsors, team members, and parishioners who witnessed the transformation taking place in your catechumens and in themselves!

Do you have other ways you invite your neophytes to share their experience with the community? Have you included reflections from your neophytes on your Web site? Click the comment link below and share your ideas.

QHow do I lead an ongoing catechumenate in a campus ministry setting when we only have the catechumens from September to April?

ASome of the general adaptations you’ll need to make for RCIA in a campus ministry setting depends a bit on the type of campus you’ll be working at. Is it a commuter campus or a dorm campus? Is it a Catholic college or a secular campus? Do you have a campus ministry team of professional staff or team of student leaders? Or are you by yourself as the campus minister? Is the campus ministry part of a parish community or is it an independent community? Is the school in session during Holy Week or will they be on spring break during the Easter Vigil?

Knowing some of these specifics will help you know how to best use your resources and to adapt to the natural school schedule.

Here are some basic steps you can take in any situation: Read the rest of this entry »

The ideal sponsor is someone fully immersed in their Catholic faith, and it’s wonderful when you have sponsors like this. In my experience, however, sponsors are sometimes not much more catechized than the catechumens. When that is the case, the sponsor coordinator is really a sponsor to the sponsors.

If you find yourself working with under-catechized sponsors, consider these four points. Read the rest of this entry »

The Concord Pastor reminds us on this feast day about the implications of Pentecost. He cites Economic Justice for All, which bears reading for all of us who are trying to be faithful to RCIA 75:4:¹

After Jesus had appeared to them and when they received the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-12), they became apostles of the good news to the ends of the earth. In the face of poverty and persecution they transformed human lives and formed communities which became signs of the power and presence of God. Sharing in this same resurrection faith, contemporary followers of Christ can face the struggles and challenges that await those who bring the gospel vision to bear on our complex economic and social world. (Economic Justice for All, no. 47, US Conference of Catholic Bishops)

This, I think, points out the clear distinction between a classroom model of faith formation in the RCIA and a mystagogical or apprenticeship model. Our task is not merely to teach the catechumens about the apostolic mission of the church. Our task is to form followers of Christ who will transform lives and create communities that challenge the structures of endemic poverty and persecution in the world.

Check out the Concord Pastor’s entire post by clicking here.

1. Since the church’s life is apostolic, catechumens should also learn how to work actively with others to spread the Gospel and build up the church by the witness of their lives and by professing their faith. RCIA 75.4 [↩]

QWe have a catechumen who would have been initiated at the Easter Vigil last month, except her husband’s annulment had not come through in time. Now it has come through. She has been in the catechumenate for almost two years now. Can we celebrate initiation outside of the Easter Vigil? What about the Rite of Sending and the Rite of Election? Would we do the Scrutinies within class? Is there a format to follow?

AYour catechumen’s case falls under “unusual circumstances,” which are described in paragraphs 26-30 in the RCIA. See especially paragraph 29, which says Election is to be celebrated six weeks before baptism, and there should be sufficient time for the Scrutinies and Presentations.

If you follow these guidelines, you should be able to celebrate all the rites to the greatest extent possible, knowing some compromises will have to be made.
For example:

• Celebrate the Rite of Election at a Sunday Mass six weeks before you plan to celebrate the Initiation sacraments. You need to get the bishop to delegate authority to the pastor to do this. (Or maybe the bishop would come to the parish to preside himself! See paragraph 29.)
• You would not do a Rite of Sending because you aren’t sending your catechumen anywhere. However, you can adapt this rehearsal outline for the Rite of Sending for the celebration of the Rite of Election in your parish.
• Click here for a handout here on the Rite of Election that you might want to adapt to give out to your parish assembly.
• It might be pastorally best for your Sunday assembly if you move the Scrutinies and Presentations to “convenient weekdays” (see paragraph 20), with as many people from the parish as care to come, and this may include the team and the other participants in the process. Click here for a rehearsal outline for the scrutinies.
• You would then want to celebrate the Initiation sacraments on a Sunday (see paragraph 27).

It is important to strive to give your catechumen the fullest experience of the rites possible. These rites have value even if they are done on a modest scale, with a small assembly. She will only be baptized once in her life (we hope!). She deserves to experience everything the rites have to offer.

Has anyone else had experience with celebrating the Initiation Rites outside of the Easter Vigil? Click on the comments button below and tell us about it.

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.

I’m working on the editorial plan for Today’s Parish Minister for next year, and the theme for the March issue is the catechumenate. I need to come up with four feature articles that explore that theme. Here’s what I’ve thought of so far. If you have any comments or other suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Thanks.

1. Ten reasons year-round is easier than a 9-month RCIA
2. Catechumenate in small or clustered parishes
3. What goes wrong at the Rite of Election—and how to fix it
4. Parish Council Agenda: Mystagogy isn’t just for the newly baptized

I’m headed south for the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress on Thursday. If you’ve never been, it is an experience like no other. The Congress draws more than 40,000 participants who come to hear speakers from all over the world. Despite the name, the Congress is not limited to religious education themes. There are many workshops on liturgy, social justice, parenting, ethics, Scripture, and parish leadership. I’m hoping to find some insightful ideas about the catechumenate, but the offerings there look a little sparse this year. Fr. Ray Kemp is leading a workshop titled “Preparing Pastoral Preaching that is Pointed, Prayerful and Purposeful,” which is listed as a catechumenate offering. I’ll wander by there and try not to sit in the front row if he is going to be using all those “P” words.

If you’re in Los Angeles for the Congress, come visit me at the Twenty-Third Publications booth. Otherwise, I’ll see you here when I return next week.