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This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past nine years in various dioceses.

In this issue we cover the following questions:

Q: Under what circumstances may a lay RCIA leader/catechist give a blessing or minor exorcism to a catechumen or candidate?

Q: An RCIA director is frustrated in her attempts to get a particular inquirer to come out of his shell. He is marrying a parishioner in ten months, and wants to become a Catholic to have peace in the marriage. What are some suggestions that might help her to get him to relate to the process and begin to foster conversion?

Q: What if a previous marriage of one of our RCIA candidates is determined to be valid, and a decree of nullity is not possible?

Q: An RCIA team is somewhat at a loss for how to handle, pastorally and catechetically, a participant who has a mentally disability. What would you suggest?

Esta página sobre la iniciación cristiana se ofrece en cada edición de The Sower como herramienta continua para enfrentar preguntas concretas que quizás no reciben respuesta en los artículos o demás recursos de capacitación más generales. Todas las preguntas provienen directamente del campo, y tienen dos fuentes: 1) de lectores como tú; 2) de asuntos que se suscitan durante los seminarios dirigidos por la Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) [Asociación para el Ministerio Catecumenal] a lo largo de los últimos ocho años en varios diócesis.

P: ¿Qué es ‘Abriendo la palabra’? o ¿‘Reflexión sobre la palabra’? ¿En qué parte se habla de esto en la guía a los Ritos?

P: ¿Se puede utilizar el Aceite de Catecúmenos para ungir a los candidatos para bendiciones y exorcismos menores?

P: ¿Se puede recibir a los cristianos bautizados en la Iglesia fuera de la Vigilia Pascual?

P: ¿Para qué se utiliza el acrónimo RCIT [RICT: T denota teenagers o adolescentes]?

P: ¿Cuáles son los pros y las contras al permitir que un participante con una anulación [de matrimonio] pendiente pase por los Ritos de Aceptación / Bienvenida? ¿Qué hay de los Ritos de Elección /Llamada a la Conversión Continua? ¿Existen algunas directrices para esto?

Esta página sobre la iniciación cristiana se ofrece en cada número de The Sower como medio continuo para tratar temas específicos que no necesariamente reciben atención en artículos más generalizados o en otros recursos de formación. Todas las preguntas provienen del campo y tienen dos fuentes: 1) los lectores como usted mismo; 2) asuntos que se han ido suscitando durante los talleres dirigidos por la Association for Catechumenal Ministry [Asociación para el Ministerio del Catecumenado] (ACM) a lo largo de los últimos diez años en varias diócesis.

P: Una patrocinadora se ha mostrado problemática durante las sesiones de RICA. En el grupo pequeño, la patrocinadora intenta ‘ponerle parches’ o minimizar ciertos temas y situaciones que tienen que ver con la Iglesia que parecen presentar dificultades para su candidato. Te enteras que fuera de las sesiones esta patrocinadora intenta dar su propia interpretación de algunos de los puntos enseñados por el catequista del RICA. Su candidato rara vez hace preguntas durante las sesiones de grupo pequeño y nunca durante la enseñanza general. ¿Qué puede hacer acerca de esto el coordinador de patrocinadores o el dirigente del RICA?
P: ¿A quién se aplica correctamente el término ‘converso’?
P: ¿Quién puede leer el Evangelio en una Celebración de la Palabra durante una sesión catequética?
P: El párroco de una parroquia rural de 90 familias desea implementar el proceso del RICA, pero él es el único que tiene formación teológica o catequética en la parroquia, y no tiene los recursos económicos para un director de educación religiosa o un director del RICA. ¿Qué le está pidiendo la Iglesia?

In this issue Bill Keimig answers the following questions:
Q. Is it liturgically appropriate to formally allow catechumens to choose a baptismal name earlier than the Holy Saturday Preparation Rites?

Q. The Code of Canon Law (CIC 865) says that adults to be baptized should be exhorted to have sorrow for personal sin. My pastor has the unbaptized elect and the baptized candidates both go to Confession prior to the Easter Vigil. His reasoning is that as adults even those not yet baptized would benefit from participating in this sacrament and would better understand how life-giving and freeing it is. Is there any problem with this?

Q. What would you recommend in terms of ensuring that a baptized participant has gone to Confession prior to making a profession of faith and receiving Confirmation and Eucharist?

Q. Where can the provision be found for Christian initiation of a person in danger of death?

Q. A person who is a strong, lifelong Christian meets with you about becoming a Catholic. He is absolutely positive that he wants to be a Catholic; he tells you that he has studied many books and listened to many tapes and is totally convinced that he wants to join the Church. He doesn’t have any close Catholic friends. He is upset by the idea that it might be many months before he is allowed to enter the Church and receive the sacraments. He asks if he really has to go through the entire RCIA process and all the rites.

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past eight years in various dioceses.

This issue's questions are:
Q. What is ‘Breaking Open the Word’ or ‘Reflection on the Word’? Where is this discussed in the guidelines to the Rites?
Q. Can the Oil of Catechumens be used to anoint candidates for blessings and minor exorcisms?
Q. Can baptized Christians be received into the Church outside of the Easter Vigil?
Q. What is the acronym RCIT used to refer to?
Q. What are the pros and cons of allowing a participant with a pending annulment case to go through the Rites of Acceptance/Welcoming. What about the Rites of Election/Call to Continuing Conversion? Are there any directives for this?

Susanne Lehne reports on recent research undertaken in US parishes on the catechumenal initiation of children.

During the past four years, The Sower has been publishing an ongoing series of articles about the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. In these articles, William Keimig expertly presented a comprehensive overview of many different aspects of catechumenal initiation of adults. The present contribution presumes that this background will be familiar and attempts a brief sketch of some of the issues and challenges arising from catechumenal initiation of children of catechetical age.

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions. The questions all come straight from the field from readers and from others working in RCIA.

This issue addresses the following questions:

Q. A Catholic spouse, who happens to be very devout and knowledgeable in her faith, would like to be the sponsor for her husband. He is hesitant, but does not seem to have any strong objections during your meeting with the two of them. What would you do in this situation?

Q. How can I recruit godparents and sponsors for the RCIA process?

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past twelve years in various dioceses. This issue's questions:
Q. Our RCIA team wanted to explore some ways to more fully explore and make present Catholic prayer traditions and practices in our RCIA sessions. Any ideas?
Q. In years when we have teenagers coming into the Catholic faith through our parish, we’ve more and more felt the need to offer some kind of “follow-up” experience to help them jump in with both feet. At least we’d like to have a stronger neophyte year to “enliven” our teens with all the good stuff going on in the Church. What suggestions would you have?

The Compendium is Christ-centred and can be used in RCIA to draw people into communion with Christ and his Church.
This article explores the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in relation to the Christian initiation of adults. Emphasis will be placed on the initial period of the RCIA and the on many useful ways in which the Compendium can be at the service of drawing persons to Christ and the Church.

The previous article to this series (Conversion in Purification and Enlightenment: A New Cross Embraced, April-June 2007 issue), included the following comment: ‘The sacraments of initiation are the climax, but not the end, of the process of conversion….The grandeur and exhilaration of the Easter Vigil…should be the beginning of a Catholic life of growing intimacy with God and self-gift to others that becomes ever more complete — a life, in short, of greater and greater holiness.’ Mr. Keimig explains this in more depth here.