This past weekend, I participated in an exciting two-day intensive in Houston, Texas. Two hundred RCIA leaders—including my mother!—gathered at St. Anne’s Catholic Community to discuss how the catechumenate can be a model for all faith formation. The event flowed flawlessly from beginning to end. That’s thanks to organizational rock star Sandy Higgins, who is
Houston RCIA teams focus on catechumenate as the model
In a previous post, I said that if we want to involve the whole parish in the RCIA process, we have to stop making scholars and start making disciples. This is not easy. Our entire formation system is designed to create scholars. We place a heavy emphasis on “knowing the faith,” by which we usually
Five things every Catholic parish must do—and how RCIA matters
I gave my last Forum institute this past weekend. Well, sort of a Forum institute. Forum, as our readers will know, closed down on June 30. But this institute had been scheduled many months ago. When Jim Schellman asked the diocese of Shreveport — and me — if we still wanted to go ahead with
RCIA ministry is flourishing in Shreveport
How do we get the whole parish to be involved in the RCIA? That is a burning question for many parishes. If I had an easy answer, I promise I would have given it to you by now, and everything would be solved. However, just because there is no easy answer does not mean there
Is it really possible to involve the whole parish in RCIA?
The answer might seem obvious. But if you think so, ask a few people and note their answers. A catechist has a vocation. We tend to use that word in the context of ordination or profession to a religious orders. When we are asked to “pray for vocations,” the clear intent is that we pray
Why are artists and RCIA catechists important?
(This is a guest post by Linda Khirallah Porter, MTS.) As Director of the Office of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Tyler for 20 years, I have seen a transformation in RCIA. Our diocese is 26 years old, and we are presently under the guidance of our fourth bishop. Bishop Herzig, our first bishop,
How one diocese transformed RCIA—and became transformed
I was headed to a movie at a cinema downtown the other night, and I walked by a street preacher who was shouting Bible verses and sketchy theology at passersby. I went to high school and college in southern Missouri, so I’m familiar with street preaching. However, if you have never seen a real, live
What I learned about Catholic evangelization from Bible-quoting Pentecostals
TeamRCIA hosted a meeting online with diocesan directors yesterday to talk about the formation needs of those who minister in Christian Initiation. We discussed how best to meet those needs now that the North American Forum on the Catechumenate, the premier organization for RCIA institutes for more than 30 years, is closing its doors on
TeamRCIA Meets with Diocesan Directors
The Washington Post has published a feature article on a local campaign for “the new evangelization” in Washington DC. Targeting strategies for face-to-face witness and invitation, the Archdiocese is seeking especially to mobilize young Catholics to share their faith. The campaign seeks to overhaul the concept of evangelization to something built for 2013, more subtle
Sometimes, when we are pressured to provide a religion of absolutes straight out of the Catechism; sometimes, when candor, actual experience, and the importance of involving ordinary people in the RCIA is pooh-poohed; sometimes, when the community is not taken seriously as the most basic agent of evangelization; sometimes, when the catechumenate is seen as
It’s the community that initiates
