This is a question we often get from parish teams. They’ve just read a blog post, a book, or participated in a workshop on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and are excited about the principles they’ve learned. But they wonder why their priests don’t seem to follow them or even know about them. …
How do priests learn about the principles of the catechumenate?
Every day when I was a kid, I put on my white, short-sleeve shirt, clipped on my Catholic-plaid tie, and went to school. The sisters marched us single file into church for Mass, and we knelt in silent prayer until the priest rang the sanctuary bell and began the liturgy. The Mass was in English, …
In previous posts, we’ve looked at the upcoming dreaming together process that Pope Francis has called for. But what exactly is the process? Officially the process is called a synod, which literally means walking together or dreaming together. They church has always had “synods,” even if they weren’t called by that name. The first synodal …
What is Pope Francis’s plan for dreaming together about the future?
In a previous post, we talked about the worldwide process Pope Francis has inaugurated to dream about the future of the church. I think all catechumenate teams should take this seriously. The church that we are initiating the seekers into today will not be what the church looks like in the future. The pope and …
Why dreaming together about the future is important for RCIA teams
Pope Francis wants to know what your dreams are for the church of the future. Seriously. He wants to know what you, personally, have to say. He has put into motion all the energy of the Vatican and called upon the worldwide bishops to set up listening sessions to hear from the People of God. …
Perhaps the most frequent question we get here at TeamRCIA is some version of: “How do I convince [INSERT NAME/TITLE] that they should do [INSERT ACTION]? For example: “How do I convince the pastor we should be dismissing the catechumens from Mass?” Other versions of the question involve trying to convince the deacon, the parishioners, …
Six ways to convince others that the RCIA dismissal is a good idea
Q. How do I get buy-in for my RCIA vision from the parish leadership and faith community? A. This question is at the heart of being human and being in relationship. Differences among us are baked into our DNA. The challenge is, in spite of all our differences, how do we join together to proclaim …
Q&A: Eight ways to get RCIA buy-in from everyone in the parish—including the pastor
Every January, I resolve to lose weight. And every December, I weigh about what I weighed in January. Sometimes, it is just too difficult to follow through on the commitments we make to ourselves. But more often, we don’t follow through on our resolutions because we don’t have a clear, compelling reason why we should …
Originally from Montreal but now in Alberta for 25 years, Bonnie Kirk is an Oblate Missionary of Mary Immaculate, She completed her Master’s degree in Pastoral Ministry (1980) at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa. Bonnie has been in active ministry since 1977, enjoying the RCIA adventure for close to 30 years. She currently serves as …
Like all of you I’ve been hard at work at finding ways to keep our initiation processes going while our churches have been closed and social distancing has become the norm. But even as challenging as that can be, the greater challenge has been working with those elect and candidates who were expecting to be …
Is your RCIA open all year-round? Managing expectations in a changing world
