Last Thursday, we began our formal inquiry period for the Rite of Christian Initiation of adults. We do have an "on-going inquiry" that usually begins around late October to prepare those who come to us throughout the year for the final stage of the RCIA which is our year long program that culminates at Easter and then has several sessions following Easter, what is called "mystygogia."
We've experimented with various catechisms over the years. For many, many years, I've used "In His Light" which I thought was good, but wasn't as thorough as it might have been.
Then a couple of years ago we used "Catholicism for Dummies." I thought it was a disaster for the RCIA, although perhaps a good supplemental book for them.
Last year we began using the "United States Catechism for Adults" by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. I like it very much, but for many in the RCIA it might be a bit intimidating. But I like the order of it and certainly it is modeled after the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Please know, too, that once we celebrate the Rite of Welcome around Advent, we also dismiss our candidates and catechumens after the homily of the Sunday Mass for them to study the word of God that have just heard, so this portion of their catechesis is lectionary based.
But this year, in addition to the Bishops' Catechism we are giving them the Baltimore Catechism, #2 which is really intended for middle school children.
Why, you might ask, are we doing this, give a pre-Vatican II catechism in the post-Vatican II Church? Let me count the ways:
1. We have a wide swath of people with different academic backgrounds and religious backgrounds, some very strong others very weak. The Baltimore Catechism is simple and gives the very basics of the faith in a way that is very easy to comprehend. There aren't a lot of details but much practical advise--it is foundational.
2. Most of our Inquirers do not have a clue about what it means when we say, "pre-Vatican II or post-Vatican II. With the Baltimore Catechism as well as the Bishops' one, we can point out the hermeneutic of continuity but also show where there has been development since Vatican II. It also gives the order of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and this helps to explain the changes in the post-Vatican II Mass and also shows them that we do have two forms now of the one Roman Rite and both are legitimate and both are a part of the Church of today!
3. It is basic, basic, basic! Our new bishop, Bishop Gregory Hartmayer lamented at our recent clergy retreat that our children for confirmation that he experienced this past year are abysmally ill-prepared catechetically. They don't know the basics of the faith at all; many don't know who the pope is let alone their own bishop! He wants to turn that around and I have two suggestions for this turn around:
A. Like the religious orders of the Church were asked to do after Vatican II, we need to go back to what worked for us in the pre-Vatican II Church in terms of catechesis and for us in the USA the Baltimore Catechism prepared generations of Catholics in the very basics, foundational elements of the faith and in a clear, simple and concise way. That isn't the case today with our cathecetical materials and there are way too many choices some better some worse than others although today the materials are much better than they were up until the 1990's!
B. The Liturgy of the Church needs to be celebrated in a traditional way with a very clear awareness of the Divinity of Christ, the Hierarchical nature of the Church and the truths of Holy Religion. The Vertical must take precedence over the horizontal. The horizontal should be experienced in other religious venues apart from the Mass.
4. The Baltimore Catechism has all of the basic prayers at the beginning of it that a Catholic should know and memorize. The book will be a good reference book for them later on and easy to find answers to questions they might have without having to deal with a novel size catechism to find what they need.
5. If they have children, it will help them to hand on the faith to their children who will become Catholic too and in an easy and concise way with lots of suggestions for how one lives their lives as Catholics.
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