By Susan Gallagher

Desiring lives of faith for their two children led Gena and Lonnie Stevens to Missoula’s St. Anthony Parish. That quest expanded beyond the couple’s initial expectations, taking them on a personal faith journey, through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and into communion with the Catholic Church.

Gena and Lonnie had no formal church affiliation in 2007 when the Catholic baptisms of their sons, now 8 and 5, took place during a family visit to Gena’s ancestral home of Crosby, N.D. She had arranged for the boys to receive the sacrament in Crosby because that is where her parents and grandmother live, and she wanted them to witness the baptisms.

When Gena and Lonnie were back in their hometown of Missoula, they attended Mass at St. Anthony to support their sons, who were in children’s programs there. Before long, Gena and Lonnie felt called to explore the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA, the process through which adults may move toward full membership in the Catholic Church.

RCIA is for non-Christians, for Christians who are not Roman Catholic and for people who were baptized in the Catholic Church but did not receive religious training.

“I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing,” recalled Lonnie, who said religious instruction of any kind was not part of his upbringing and with his parents deceased, he does not know whether he was baptized as a child. “I went (to an RCIA gathering) and then I went again, and I got comfortable with our group. Father (Gary) Reller made it a comfortable environment.”

Lonnie was baptized last Easter, after an RCIA journey spanning about six months. During that time, a group consisting of the Stevenses, who are in their 30s, another couple and a woman who is single met weekly for prayer, to learn about Catholicism and to examine whether joining the Church would be right for them.

Gena was baptized in the Church during infancy, but her childhood Catholic instruction ceased just short of first Communion. Growing up, she attended Lutheran classes on Sundays for a time, and as a student at the diocesan Carroll College in Helena from 1991-92 she attended Mass occasionally. She felt initial uneasiness about going to St. Anthony.

“The Catholic Church can be intimidating,” leaving newcomers uncertain about things such as unfamiliarity with Bible stories, or when to sit and when to stand during Mass, she said. But the qualms dissipated quickly. The message at St. Anthony was “come in – we’ll take you as you are,” Gena said, and she learned that not all parishioners are “people who have been doing this their entire lives.” She found many who had been “new one day, too,” she said.

Her husband said that when looking into RCIA, he wondered if his lack of childhood religious instruction would be a stigma.

“You have some people who are coming from a background where they’re very well-versed in Scripture … and you have people who have never opened a Bible,” Father Reller said. “You have to convince people that wherever we’re at in the journey, we’re all OK.”

Working within the framework of the major liturgical rites in RCIA, Father Reller strives to provide plenty of opportunity for group sharing and discussion. He guides participants with help from St. Anthony pastoral assistant Terry Jimmerson and two volunteers, Barbara Druffel and Marla Obrigewitch.

Often people “just kind of explore” through RCIA and some want to travel the path more than once, Father Reller said.

He has seen people experience the process and then return in the following year or two to join a newly formed group. Some of the returnees journeyed through RCIA but were not baptized for one reason or another, and others who did enter full communion with the Church want to experience RCIA again. Sometimes, people who completed RCIA return as assistants who help with various needs.

The stages of RCIA include a time of inquiry, in which participants reflect on God’s call in their lives and whether they should move further into the RCIA process; the catechumenate, for in-depth exploration of Catholic teachings, an exploration within the context of worship and prayer; and purification and enlightenment, which immediately precede the initiation sacraments celebrated at the Easter Vigil. Also part of RCIA is the Mystagogy, which immediately follows Easter and is a time of reflection for the new Catholics.

One of Gena’s co-workers at a Missoula car dealership prompted her to look into Catholicism as she considered her boys’ upbringing. Joining the Catholic Church was “maybe something I had always wanted to do, but it just didn’t happen,” Gena said. “Having kids helped. (Church) is a place where we all go together, and where we can take a deep breath.”

The Stevens family enjoys meals that bring St. Anthony parishioners together, and the boys like providing baby supplies the parish gives to Missoula’s 1st Way Pregnancy Support Center. Gena said she expects increased parish involvement by the family after this school year, which has been a time of transition as her younger son adjusted to life as a kindergartner.

Gena said that during the Mystagogy, as she thought about her new life as a Catholic, she drew a parallel with marriage. She said she was reminded of “people who have been together for years and then get married and say, ‘Oh, now I get it. I get why it’s better to be married.’ It’s a commitment. I feel like I’ve committed” to the Church.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 25, No. 12, December 18, 2009.