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 formation, we will lose them. They want a faster route to becoming Catholic.

The simple solution to this is to do a better job explaining what it means to be a catechumen. When an unbaptized person enters the catechumenate, they are entering an order in the church. The church is made up of many orders — those in holy orders as well as catechumens, virgins, spouses, and widows.

RCIA joins catechumens to the church

From the moment a seeker is first consecrated as a catechumen, they are joined to the church. We embrace them as one of our own, and they are forever part of the household of Christ. While they cannot yet participate in the sacraments, we expect them to take part in the Sunday celebrations of the word of God and celebrate blessings and other sacramentals.

We expect them, even before baptism, to spread the gospel and participate in the building up of the church (see Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church, 14). If they marry, they are married in the church with the appropriate rites. Should they die before baptism, they receive a Christian burial (see RCIA 47).

The initial requirements are very basic, and a seeker can become a catechumen very soon after they express a desire to be baptized:

The prerequisite for making this first step is that the beginnings of the spiritual life and the fundamentals of Christian teaching have taken root in the candidates. Thus there must be:

• evidence of the first faith that was conceived during the period of evangelization and precatechumenate
• and of an initial conversion
• and intention to change their lives
• and to enter into a relationship with God in Christ.

Consequently, there must also be:

• evidence of the first stirrings of repentance,
• a start to the practice of calling upon God in prayer,
• a sense of the Church,
• and some experience of the company and spirit of Christian through contact with a priest or with members of the community.
• The candidate should also be instructed about the celebration of the liturgical rite of acceptance. (RCIA 42)

What is required for the RCIA?

Note that while many seekers come to us already leading a Christ-like life of faith, hope, and charity, it is not necessary that they do so in order to become a catechumen. They only need to have a first faith, an intention, a first stirring, a sense of, some experience of, a start of a practice.

And yet, even with this very minimal manifestation of discipleship, God can work mighty deeds through the catechumens. In Augustine and the Catechumenate, William Harmless writes:

For instance, when the community witnesses catechumens feasting at the table of God’s Word, it should find itself called to examine how that Word nourishes its own heart and mind; when it witnesses catechumens who spend years hungering for the Eucharist, it should find itself called to examine how that Eucharist sustains its own graced life; when it witnesses catechumens feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the dying, it should find itself called to ponder the meaning and cost of its own apostolic vocation. (12)

Catechumens, then, are not mere passive recipients of information, waiting for the day of baptism in order to become members. They are officially ordered to the mission of Gospel and co-disciples with us from the moment we sign them with the cross in the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens. While they may spend several years in the catechumenate (see RCIA 78), they do not wait long at all to become active members of the household of Christ.

This post is part of a series on the paradigm shifts that flow from the Second Vatican Council and the restoration of the catechumenate. Click here to see other posts in the series.

Your Turn

How “joined to the Church” have you made your catechumens feel? How have they responded to this? What have they shared with you about their own first stirrings of faith? About what that faith has called them to go out and do? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

This post is part of a series on the paradigm shifts that flow from the Second Vatican Council and the restoration of the catechumenate. Click here to see other posts in the series.