The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

RCIA: Questions, Answers, Issues and Advice

Authored by William Keimig in Issue #29.3 of The Sower
This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past nine years in various dioceses. In this issue we cover the following questions: Q: Under what circumstances may a lay RCIA leader/catechist give a blessing or minor exorcism to a catechumen or candidate? Q: An RCIA director is frustrated in her attempts to get a particular inquirer to come out of his shell. He is marrying a parishioner in ten months, and wants to become a Catholic to have peace in the marriage. What are some suggestions that might help her to get him to relate to the process and begin to foster conversion? Q: What if a previous marriage of one of our RCIA candidates is determined to be valid, and a decree of nullity is not possible? Q: An RCIA team is somewhat at a loss for how to handle, pastorally and catechetically, a participant who has a mentally disability. What would you suggest?

The rest of this online article is available for current subscribers.

Start your subscription today!


This article is from The Sower and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of Maryvale Institute. Contact [email protected]

Articles from the Most Recent Issue

Leading Eucharistic Revival in Schools, Homes, and Ministries
By Deborah Nearmyer
The two great commandments are to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself (see Mt 22:36–40). Catholic leaders are called to create and ensconce Catholic culture by striving to fulfill these two great commandments—and to guide the ministries that they lead to do the same. In my role as a... Read more
From the Shepherds — Learning From the Charism of St. John Bosco
By Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst
Free In the Latin language there is a saying that could also be applied to our work as catechists: nomen est omen . This means that the name also reflects the inner essence of a person or a thing. In other words, the name speaks for itself. The name of St. John Bosco has become synonymous with good and holy catechesis. In this sense, all reflection on... Read more
Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk: Native American Catechist
By Carole M. Brown
Free Many moons ago, when I was a young social work student in North Dakota, I was required to take a course called “Indian Studies.” One of the books for the course was titled Black Elk Speaks . It was the moving account of the experience of the life of indigenous peoples prior to the arrival of the white European settlers, as seen through the eyes of... Read more

Pages

Watch Tutorial Videos

We've put together several quick and easy tutorial videos to show you how to use this website.

Watch Now