Five key questions to ask RCIA inquirers

Mar 1, '12, 10:41 pm

Mike30 Junior Member   Join Date: September 14, 2011 Posts: 439 Religion: Roman Catholic

Re: Rcia/fssp Quote: Originally Posted by felsguy "instead of everyone sitting around stupid and confused. I've seen more confused instructors in RCIA than anywhere else" I find this statement highly offensive and totally uncalled for. I believe the hundreds of RCIA participants and dozens of "instructors" with whom I was present at the Celebration of the Rite of Election this past Sunday would also, as would the hundreds of thousands who celebrated it throughout the world. While I do believe that the poster that you are responding to was more than a little, and thats putting it mildly, rude and disrespectful, he may have only been venting his feelings over what his particular experiences were or those of someone close to him. RCIA instruction can and does vary widely from excellent to downright horrible and I think it is only fair to bring that up. The differences at what is presented from Parish to Parish is quite honestly staggering and generally reflects the personal ideas, good or bad of the DRO at that particular Parish. I taught RCIA years ago during the US involvement in Iraq. This was at a Parish in southern California with a high volume of military personnel as parishners. The DRO gave an hour long speech during a session on social justice, on the illegal activity of the United States government for its involvement in that particular action and stated that no Catholic in good conscience could support it as it was clearly an unjust war. We lost four Catechumans after that class, all active duty military. The fact that a great many RCIA instructors were woefully unprepared and not knowledgeable is not unknown and is in fact one of the reasons many Dioceses now require that all RCIA instructors complete a Diocesean approved Catechist training program prior to beginning instruction. Sadly that was not always the case and did in fact lead to complete and utter confusion in many cases. I vividly recall one of my fellow instructors earnestly telling the class that the Immaculate Conception referred to the pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Jesus. The same instructor, in what I assume was an attempt to show that Jesus has been with us always told the same class that Jesus had never really died, only appeared to do so to those watching. We also had a Deacon who advised the class that receiving the Eucharist while in a state of mortal sin was perfectly OK as the Eucharist itself is salvific. The other problem that I saw quite often was more a lack of knowledge on how to properly teach a class than anything else. Often, classes would disintegrate into what could best be described as either self help or therapy groups or more appropriately I guess either coffee clatches or straight out bull sessions. In those cases it wasn't that the instructor wanted things to go that way, it was just that they didn't have a grasp of the mechanics of holding a class together and presenting material effectively. Understand I am not defending the way in which he approached the subject, and never would, and I do believe that the overwhelming majority of RCIA instructors are dedicated and sincere in what they do and try to do the best job possible.

#15     Mar 2, '12, 8:33 am

PJM Senior Member   Join Date: August 31, 2008 Location: Centeral Florida Posts: 8,507 Religion: Informed, practicing RomanCatholic

Re: Rcia/fssp Quote: =floresco;9026216]I personally had a bad experience of my RCIA program, but even if I had not, I think I would recommend individual instruction over group instruction. Preparing one on one, allows the priest to address your needs and questions in a way that is not likely to happen in a group. As a FYI; I offer a Complete "Building Blocks of our Catholic Faith" FREE to anyone intersted in taking it. Just send me a Private Message and I'll get you the info. I am a trianed, tested, experienced and annually certified member of the Marain Catechist Lay Apostolate, and our charism is sharing our Faith. Raymond Cardinal Burke is our International Director. God Bless, Pat PJM on this FORUM __________________ PJM http://working4christ2.wordpress.com