Revisions made to the Church’s adult initiation process

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Change is coming to the process for initiating adults into the Catholic Church.  
That gives the Worcester diocese a chance to make improvements for this process locally.

Perhaps most obvious is the change in name from “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults” (RCIA), which was used to refer both to the liturgical book of initiation rituals and the process it laid out. The new name is “Order of Christian Initiation of Adults” (OCIA), the title of the revised English edition of “Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum.” The new Spanish edition, “Ritual de la Iniciación cristiana de adultos” (RICA), has the same title as before.

The revisions are part of an effort to closely retranslate, from Latin, liturgical books published since the Second Vatican Council, explains last month’s issue of “Orantes,” the newsletter of the Worcester diocese’s Office for Divine Worship, published almost every month. The newsletter says most of these books, which are collections of related rites, are titled “Order.”

“An Ordo (Order) is a collection of rites,” explained Msgr. James P. Moroney, editor of “Orantes,” who has served in a variety of liturgical capacities and is pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Leominster.

On February 14 this year, the new English and Spanish editions of the book for initiation were confirmed for use in the United States by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, “Orantes” says.  

The books are to be available soon and may be used on the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1. Their use is obligatory as of Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025.  

In the July edition of “Orantes,” Msgr. Moroney gives a brief history: More than 60 years ago the fathers of Vatican Council II “decreed that the ancient ‘catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps,’” was to be restored.

Explaining the process

Elizabeth A. Marcil explained the steps on the journey to Christian initiation. She is director of the Office of Religious Education and associate director of the Office for Divine Worship, the offices responsible for overseeing the OCIA in the Worcester diocese.

Unbaptized adults interested in becoming Catholic Christians first go through a period of inquiry, or precatechumenate.

“Once inquirers have begun to practice a spiritual life and the foundations of Christian doctrine have been laid, the ‘Rite for Entrance into the Catechumenate’ may be celebrated,” says “Orantes,” drawing from the new National Statutes for the Christian Initiation of Adults.  

Entering the order of catechumens, the catechumens receive suitable catechesis for conversion and share the company of other Christians in prayer and apostolic works, Ms. Marcil said.

At the Rite of Election at the cathedral the Sunday after Ash Wednesday, the catechumens’ godparents give testimony to their spiritual growth. The bishop formally recognizes that God has chosen them and they have responded. They are then called elect.

The elect enter the period of enlightenment, which includes “intensive purification,” and concludes with their initiation into the Easter Sacraments, “Orantes” says. At the Easter Vigil they are baptized, confirmed and receive their first Communion.

“The goal of [OCIA] is not baptism; it’s discipleship,” Ms. Marcil said. “All of the sacraments are there to help us become stronger disciples.”

Indeed, the process continues. Orantes notes that the newly initiated enter the period of mystagogy until Pentecost. The community helps them incorporate the Paschal Mystery into their lives by meditating on Scripture, participating in Mass and performing charitable works.

The first Latin liturgical book guiding this initiation process was published in 1972. The English edition for the United States came fourteen years later, along with National Statutes and a plan for implementation, Msgr. Moroney wrote.  

Guidelines for the Worcester diocese, called “Journey in Faith,” were promulgated in 1993, and have been used ever since, said Ms. Marcil.  

The OCIA “gives us an opportunity to reflect on and review our experience” with parish leaders, she said. “There were things that escaped notice because there was so much” to the RCIA.  

The religious education and worship offices are revising the diocese’s guidelines, says the July 23 “Office of Religious Education Update.” It speaks of training opportunities to come.

“Recent studies have pointed to how few parishes have ... fully embraced the vision of the catechumenate,” Msgr. Moroney wrote in “Orantes,” referring to the practice throughout the U.S. This “should spur us on to more intensive efforts to promote” this effective evangelization.

“In each of the past ten years, an average of more than 160,000 American adults became Catholics through the catechumenal process, a number far exceeding most other countries,” he wrote. He commented about “great fruit” from this process and said it has “much to teach us as we seek to promote evangelization in a time of rapid change.”