Bishop lays out timeline for revised process for initiating unbaptized adults into the Church

Christian initiation is not merely a transaction but an opportunity for an entire community to enter more deeply into the mystery of God’s eternal love.”

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight

Father Daniel Merz recently heard a college-age parishioner refer to herself disparagingly as a “cradle Catholic.”

As if to say, “I grew up Catholic and never learned about that. I didn’t know any better.”

“It’s sad that we sometimes have that sense that if you grew up Catholic, then you didn’t really understand what was going on. You just did what you were told,” said Fr. Merz, pastor of St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish in Columbia, diocesan vicar for the Diaconate and chairman of the diocesan Liturgical Commission.

That perception reflects a need for the Church to do a better job of one of its most important responsibilities: helping people become lifelong followers of Christ.

“That is to say, if we do a good job with this process of making new disciples, they become lifelong learners, lifelong disciples,” Fr. Merz stated.

That’s one of the main objectives of the newly revised Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).

Bishop W. Shawn Mc­Knight recently signed a decree and a letter outlining how the OCIA will be implemented in this diocese over the next two years.

Notable changes include providing substantial formation for the people who carry out the OCIA in parishes; requiring that people who have not been baptized spend a full year in formation — known as the catechumenate — before receiving Sacraments of Initiation; and calling for a year of ongoing formation opportunities for newly baptized adults.

“OCIA teaches us the whole idea that when we make Catholics, we should expose them to an entire liturgical year, to the whole community, to all the gifts and charisms of the Spirit, and teach them that ‘this is an ongoing process for you to grow and learn for the rest of your life,’” said Fr. Merz.

Making disciples

The work of the OCIA (previously referred to as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA), is one of the most important works of the Church.

“Because it is essentially proclaiming the Gospel, fulfilling the commandment of Jesus to make disciples of all nations,” said Fr. Merz.

The requirement of a yearlong catechumenate applies only to people seeking to become Catholic without having previously been baptized.

Baptized Christians who are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church — known as candidates — are understood to have already experienced Christian living and community.

“What they may need is to be caught up on things that are specifically Catholic ways of living and thinking,” said Fr. Merz.

“That need is likely to vary from person to person, and each person ideally will be invited to receive the Sacraments whenever they’re ready,” he said.

The basic elements of the catechumenate portion of the OCIA are: pre-evangelization, evangelization, catechesis, celebration of the Sacraments, and then mystagogia.

Catechesis is the process of spiritually and intellectually forming people in the faith.

Mystagogia is the lifelong process of joyfully pondering eternal mysteries that can never be fully understood.

Namely, “savoring the mystery — a reality that’s too big to wrap my mind around — and going ever-deeper into it — getting insights that never end, like a mine that never runs out,” said Fr. Merz.

Another new development with the revised OCIA is the understanding that formation has primacy over catechesis.

“By that, we mean that we really want to form people to become pray-ers, for them to have a deep prayer life, and to be formed in what it means to be a disciple, to serve others, to be a part of the community,” Fr. Merz stated.

Not that people don’t need to “know” their faith and have answers to questions.

“That’s important,” Fr. Merz stated, “but formation is much more than just learning answers.”

Getting there

The U.S. Catholic bishops approved major revisions to the OCIA in phases over the past four years.

Church officials in the Vatican approved the revisions last year.

Bishop Mc­Knight’s letter of Feb. 20 sets the timeline for gradually implementing the updated process in this diocese.

Beginning by Lent 2027, a year-round catechumenate model must be implemented in all parishes.

“Unbaptized individuals hoping to receive sacraments at the Easter Vigil in 2028 must have celebrated the Rite of Entrance into the Catechumenate by Feb. 10, 2027 — Ash Wednesday,” Bishop Mc­Knight wrote.

By Easter Sunday of 2027, parishes and/or deaneries must provide newly baptized Catholics through the OCIA opportunities for mystagogy throughout their first year in the Church.

“I invite all of us to spend the coming months meditating on how we might all enter into mystagogy, the ability to see the mystery which is made present in the visible signs of our faith,” Bishop McKnight wrote.

“Christian initiation is not merely a transaction but an opportunity for an entire community to enter more deeply into the mystery of God’s eternal love,” he stated further.

Time to prepare

Fr. Merz has been meeting with the leaders of the diocesan Offices of Evangelization and Faith Formation and Religious Education to help develop resources and guidance toward implementing the new OCIA in this diocese.

This Lent, the new texts are to be used in all rites for the OCIA in this diocese.

Workshops and formation opportunities will be provided this fall and next spring to clergy and lay leadership to present the updated vision for Christian Initiation.

“What the bishop wants is for us to put together a real process to form the formators — priests included — so that we can all do this process well,” said Fr. Merz.

Next year, parish and deanery leaders will create plans for implementing the new vision for OCIA collaboratively, with support and resources from the diocese.

Parishes will begin planning for a year-round process of invitation, formation and mystagogy for the catechumenate.

Each of the diocese’s five deaneries will create plans for collaboration among parishes to make the best use of resources for the various stages of initiation.

“It would be a great opportunity for three or four or five neighboring parishes to collaborate on the OCIA,” said Fr. Merz.

“Maybe some leaders in one parish can take the lead on the evangelization part,” he said. “Leaders in another parish could take on the catechesis. One could take the lead on mystagogia.”

He said there’s something powerful about catechumens from one parish traveling to another for some of their formation.

“Because, then you get a sense of the universal Church, which is bigger than my parish,” said Fr. Merz. “And sometimes, that sense of making a pilgrimage, even a little one to a neighboring parish, brings with it a sense of importance and a call to conversion.”

“Most important thing”

Fr. Merz clarified the difference between an order and a rite.

“An order refers to the way the Church goes about making disciples,” he said. “A rite is a liturgical action that is a part of that order — the rituals that go into making disciples.

“The order is bigger than just the rite,” he stated. “Because there are lots of things that happen outside of liturgical rituals that go into making a disciple.

“So, with the OCIA, you have the whole order, the whole instruction, the whole process, and within that process, there are certain rites,” he said.

Fr. Merz pointed out that the goal of OCIA is to help people “form a whole-Christ mindset.”

“That’s what St. Paul says in Philippians 2: ‘Have the mind of Christ,’ and in Romans 12, ‘Be transformed by the renewal of your mind,’” he noted. “The renewal of your mind means being formed into the mind of Christ — thinking as Christ thinks as opposed to what the world thinks.”

Fr. Merz likened the revised catechumenate portion of the OCIA to “boot camp” for aspiring Catholics.

“Because we’re all born under the dominion of Satan and in an increasingly secular culture, we need to detox all of that and break it down and form an intense community that can then establish a new identity in Christ,” he said.

More than worth it

Fr. Merz is certain that the benefits of the revised OCIA will be well worth any extra time and effort.

“Coming to know Christ is the most important thing you can do in your life,” he said. “And it will be the most joyful thing you can experience. It will transform everything about your life.

“And something that life-changing requires a big process, a big effort,” he said. “We take it seriously and we want everyone to take it seriously.”

He was quick to point out that all of this isn’t just “more hoops for people to jump through” before receiving the Sacraments they desire.

“We’re not saying it has to be a many-years-long process,” he said. “But, at the same time, we want it to be a lifelong process — a process of learning, experiencing and taking delight in the eternal mysteries through which salvation is given.

“Because we love Christ, and we want heaven to be full!” he said. “We want this world to be transformed. Because we love truth, goodness and beauty.”