Q&A: “Implementing a Year-Round Catechumenate”

Posted on March 21st, 2012

Question: I am thrilled that I found this website. Thank you very much! We are currently trying to begin a year round process for RCIA. I understand and love the way you explained the Inquiry time, but I am very confused on the Rites, not that of Acceptance, but of Sending and Election. There is also the question of delegation which in our diocese is given once a year before the Rite of Election. If you help me understand this part of a year round RCIA, I would be very grateful! Also what if a person comes to us say, in January, they would begin with the Inquiry. This person is not baptized and does not know anything about the Catholic Faith. He would continue with the inquiry sessions then enter the catechumenate in the fall, is that correct? Thank you again!

Answer: You ask a great question. To have a year-round (“continuous” also seems to convey the idea well), we welcome new inquirers when they call. The simple answer to your question is that the Rites of Sending and Election are only done once a year: the 1st Sunday of Lent, and all the un-baptized wait for that day. Some spend [Click here to read the rest of this entry… » ]

Tags: normative guidelines
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Balance Your Approach

Posted on August 3rd, 2010

RCIA Is a Liturgical Process

The Christian initiation process is intended to be fundamentally liturgical. Participants need and have a right to the grace that flows from the font of the Church’s liturgy as it is made available to them as catechumens and candidates prior to full communion. This grace is an indispensable aid to conversion, and the means by which they enter into intimate union with Christ and his Church.

RCIA Is a Catechetical Process

Catechesis is the process of passing on divine revelation – the deposit of faith delivered through the Apostles and maintained by the Magisterium – to obtain the two-fold goal of understanding and change. [Click here to read the rest of this entry… » ]

Tags: Liturgical Rites, normative guidelines, Overview Chart, Preparation, RCIA Leader
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Question and Answer About Meeting During Lent

Posted on April 15th, 2010

Q. This year, our pastor has announced that the RCIA will not meet during Lent. Is this something new? Have we been doing something wrong in the past?

A. Pastors are given authority over the Christian initiation process for the people he shepherds in a given parish. However, that authority exists within the context of higher authorities, that of his bishop and the Magisterium.

Regarding the Magisterium, its main voice in regard to Christian initiation is the Rite of Christian Initiation itself, and its accompanying guidelines. In those authoritative guidelines (see paragraphs 138-139), which were mandated for the United States as normative in 1988, there is a clear assumption that gatherings of those preparing for initiation are still ongoing during Lent (termed the Period of Purification and Enlightenment in the text). These guidelines specify that the formation of elect and candidates in this period takes on a more spiritual than catechetical bent. This is expressive of the fact that, as the guidelines state, “the catechumenal formation of the elect is completed” (paragraph 147), in terms of them having received the total necessary instruction on the Deposit of Faith, and therefore is about “more intense spiritual preparation, consisting more in interior reflection than in catechetical instruction” (paragraph 139).

The delivery of the full doctrine of the Church is indeed supposed to be completed before Lent, hence allowing them to make a decision to enter the Church, which is expressed and confirmed at the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion. During Lent, the Church is clearly still forming them spiritually and in readiness for the sacraments. The possibility of gatherings for reflection and formation are also assumed in the option ‘B’ forms of the dismissals at the end of each of the Presentation Rites in Lent and at the end of the Scrutiny Rites (see paragraphs 155, 162, 169, 183).

Confirming this are the directives added by our U.S. bishops, normally published in the third appendix of the Vatican’s RCIA text. It states: “…beginning at acceptance into the order of catechumens and including both the catechumenate proper and the period of purification and enlightenment after election or enrollment of names should extend for at least one year of formation, instruction, and probation.” (National Statutes, paragraph 6).

Finally, you may wish to ask your diocesan office for a copy of its sacramental norms for the Christian initiation process, which may provide further support for your understanding of the Rite.

There has been no recent change that would modify these normative guidelines, and although the form of the gatherings certainly should be different from the doctrinal catechesis that precedes Lent, there is nothing to in any way prohibit or discourage gathering the RCIA group during the weeks of that period.

Tags: normative guidelines
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