150 prepare for reception into the Church

Almost 150 people declared their intentions to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, and signed their names in parish books during ceremonies Feb. 25 and 27 in the Diocese of Helena.
Catechumens and their godparents, along with candidates and their sponsors, gathered at the Cathedral of St. Helena and at St. Anthony Church in Missoula to meet Bishop George Leo Thomas and sign the books.
In Helena, 96 adults and children from 14 parishes and mission churches took part in the ceremonies, which have been conducted since the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults was introduced in the Diocese of Helena in the late 1970s.
In Missoula, around 49 people from nine parishes and missions went through the RCIA over the past year and participated in the Rite of Election.
After the Rite of Election, the catechumens, who have not been baptized, are called the Elect. They will receive the sacraments of initiation – confirmation, baptism and Eucharist – at the Easter Vigil on April 7.
Candidates, who were baptized in other Christian churches, go through the Call to Continuing Conversion and will be accepted into the Church at Easter time.
Revised rites for Christian initiation of adults – including preparation for and reception of baptism, the Eucharist and confirmation – were issued Jan. 6, 1972, according to Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Almanac. They also encompassed the reception of already baptized adults into full communion with the Church.
The rites were introduced to the United States after an English translation nullified the seven-step baptismal process of 1962. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops was notified in March 1988 that the Congregation for Divine Worship had approved the RCIA’s English translation. Mandatory date for putting the rite into effect was September of that year.

Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 23, No. 3, March 23, 2007.