Over a series of several posts, we have looked at the paradigm shift that was launched at the Second Vatican Council and further developed in the restoration of the catechumenate. The overarching shift in our model of church, taught by the Second Vatican Council, is a reenvisioning of the church’s mission. A simple way to […]
How the RCIA makes us dream of a new church — a summary
When the bishops of the Second Vatican Council called for a restoration of the catechumenate, they were actually asking us to shift our paradigm of conversion. Conversion would no longer mean “becoming Catholic” (as in, “I used to be Lutheran, but I am a convert to Catholicism.”). Conversion has a much more profound meaning. The
The RCIA is our definitive statement on conversion
The introduction to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults lists a litany of principles that undergird the initiation process that a seeker and an initiating community will follow (for example, see RCIA 4-5). One of the most earthshaking of these is, “The rite of initiation is suited to a spiritual journey of adults….” (5).
One of the most earthshaking shifts of the RCIA
On February 11, 2019, Bishop James S. Wall of the diocese of Gallup, New Mexico, announced that the diocese will restore the order of the sacraments of initiation for children who are baptized in infancy. That brings the number of dioceses in the United States who have restored the order if the initiation sacraments to
RCIA shifts and corrects our understanding of confirmation
Whenever I talk with RCIA teams about establishing an ongoing initiation process in their parishes — one that is not limited to the few academic months between fall and spring, I usually get resistance. One source of the resistance is a feeling that if we ask the catechumens to spend a year or more in
Does RCIA change what it means to belong?
Previously, I wrote about the big paradigm shift caused by the Second Vatican Council. To understand the impact of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, we have to first of all realize the overall goal of the Second Vatican Council was to turn the pyramid upside down. Flowing from the upside-down-pyramid model, we received
RCIA requires big paradigm shifts, starting with these two
Do you remember when you first heard about the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults? If you are a lifelong Catholic in your 40s or younger, you probably grew up experiencing the rites. Older Catholics, on the other hand, remember growing up without the catechumenate. I learned about the RCIA in the 1980s when I
RCIA: A radical, ground-breaking, world-shaking, world-transforming way of being church
