I remember the first time I read a papal letter. I was a junior in college, and I had recently taken a job as a campus minister. The new, young, exciting pope, John Paul II, had just issued his first encyclical. There was no Internet in 1979 (well, there was, but only computer geeks and […]
Five ways Pope Francis will change your RCIA ministry
One year in high school, I worked a part-time job at K-Mart to pick up some extra gas money. Early in November, there was a notice in the employee break room asking for associates to work on Thanksgiving Day to stock the shelves in preparation for “Black Friday.” The store was not going to be
Does your RCIA team have a recipe for a greed-free Thanksgiving?
Here is a made-up story that is nevertheless true. Carmen and James have two children, ages one and two. James is not Catholic, but both he and Carmen have agreed that for the sake of family unity, they should both practice the same faith. So James has started the RCIA process at his parish. The
Why one catechist stopped doing RCIA
Educational researcher Sugata Mitra speaking at TED2013In 1999, Sugata Mitra was teaching computer programming in New Delhi. His school was right next to a slum. He wondered if the children from the slum would ever be able to learn to write computer programs. So, out of curiosity, he gave them a computer. And then he
An amazing lesson from Tamil-speaking children for RCIA teams
We have to wonder why this is even a question. The teaching of the church is crystal clear: In order to signify clearly the interrelation or coalescence of the three sacraments, which are required for full Christian initiation (canon 842.2), adult candidates, including children of catechetical age, are to receive baptism, confirmation and eucharist in
Can we delay confirmation of child catechumens in the RCIA?
We all know there is a shortage of priests in the United States church, right? But what is the impact of that shortage on our evangelization efforts? Of course, the fewer priests we have, the fewer evangelists we have. But the shrinking ranks of the priesthood has an even more profound effect than just the
One unexpected way the priest shortage impacts evangelization
Once upon a time, if someone said the word “mystagogy,” people would be bewildered. Not anymore. For more and more Catholics, the term has come into its own. I have been teaching a course on the history of the sacraments for coordinators of religious education at the Archdiocese of New York. In our first class,
Has Mystagogy Come into Its Own?
Do people in your parish talk about Jesus? Do you talk about Jesus? I recently asked a group of Catholic leaders to tell me why they thought evangelization is important. They mentioned faith, the church, the gospel, and the paschal mystery, but no one said a word about Jesus. I know, all of the things
RCIA teams: break the “Spiral of Silence” about Jesus
“Every person has the right to hear the gospel.” —St. Paul Ronald D. Witherup makes two points about St. Paul’s bold statement to the Christians in Corinth: If hearing the gospel is a right, we have a responsibility. Not only should governments or institutions not impede evangelization; Christians cannot shirk their responsibility to evangelize. The
The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in beautiful western Pennsylvania has been doing some serious work on making the baptismal catechumenate the model of formation for the Sacrament of Confirmation. I had the pleasure of joining folks in the diocese for a recent workshop where we explored how the baptismal catechumenate model is the basis for their
Altoona-Johnstown doing serious work on baptismal catechumenate as model for Confirmation
