I have been having to say this more often lately. I’m not sure if that means our understanding of baptism is shrinking or (I rather hope) that so many more of us are beginning to grasp what baptism in its fullness means and that is generating a dialogue. In any case, while most TeamRCIA readers …
Dear (Arch)Bishop, We know that these days have been hard for all of us in the Church and that you have many urgent tasks before you. We also know that you care deeply about the ongoing mission of Christ that all the baptized share, and we have seen many of you and your brother bishops …
Every year, just before Lent, we tend to get a lot of questions about conditional baptism. I think of conditional baptisms like being struck by lightning or winning the lottery. These things happen, but not to me. Not to anyone I know. And not to anyone my friends and acquaintances know. Like lightning and the …
Conditional baptism is like being struck by lightning: What RCIA teams need to know
“Archbishop,” someone in the audience asked, “so many people are leaving the church because of the scandals. What can we do to address that?” Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta had just opened the floor to questions after his keynote talk at the Cathedral Ministry Conference on January 15, 2019. The archbishop took a deep breath …
There are two dismissals in the Sunday liturgy. The one Catholics are most familiar with is the second one, the dismissal of the faithful at the end of Mass. The other is becoming better known. That is the dismissal of the catechumens at the end of the Liturgy of the word. Both dismissals are sometimes …
In a recent post, I pointed out that the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity from the Second Vatican Council instructs that we who are members of the royal priesthood should be especially focused on social action (see paragraph 7). I then drew the conclusion that if our RCIA processes are not making this …
Some years ago, business leaders were caught up in a trend called “Management by Objective” (MBO). MBO is a method of organizing and motivating employees to accomplish the objectives of the company. So if the objective of a company is to sell a million widgets, whatever any employee does to help the company reach that …
When your seekers look at the church, what do they see? I wonder if they see a pyramid — with the bishops and priests at the top, supported from below by the laity. Honestly, that’s the way I saw the church throughout my childhood and most of my teen years. It is the way the …
Several years ago, I was helping lead a training institute for RCIA teams. One of the participants was quite young compared to the rest of us who were mostly well past 40. I asked her how she wound up serving on her parish’s RCIA team. She told me that when she was in college, she …
Recently, a candidate for reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church wrote an article for America magazine titled: “How can I think about becoming Catholic after the latest sex abuse reports?” I share the writer’s overwhelming grief, and I am completely dismayed and disheartened about the abuse scandals. I suspect many of you …
