by Carl McColman, St. Thomas More, Decatur
This year my wife Fran and I begin our third year as RCIA directors at our parish. It still feels “new” to us and we continue to be humbled by how enormous a responsibility this is. We find we must continually rely on God’s grace and guidance, which, in balance, seems to be a good thing!
Every year adults who want to be confirmed come to RCIA. For these Catholics, it is important to honor their Catholic Baptism and pastorally consider their faith formation needs. The result for these people may be a time of preparation that is significantly shorter than for the unbaptized or those coming from another Christian tradition. Roger Desjardins from St. Philip Benizi shared his story on how they minister to Adults seeking Confirmation.
What do you do when you have a person who is unbaptized, over the age of 7, able to make decisions for himself /herself but has special needs? The RCIA model is wholistic-addresses the whole person-and allows for numerous adaptations while focusing on formation and conversion within community. Here is a great article about a young man with autism and how the parish adapted the RCIA to meet his needs.