CATECHUMENATE ANSWER BOOK, THE ML Answers the 101 Most-Asked Questions series Paul Turner Paper, $21.95 160 pages, 5½" × 8½" ISBN 0-89390-501-1 View Table of Contents View Excerpt Quantity:

RCIA team members can use this authoritative work to answer questions from catechumens, help find solutions to pastoral dilemmas, generate ideas for the celebration of the rites and make sure the catechumenal process is going in the right direction.

There are four titles in the ML Answers series:
ML Answers the 101 Most-Asked Questions About Liturgy;
The Liturgical Music Answer Book;
The Catechumenate Answer Book;
The Catholic Wedding Answer Book.
You can order sets of all four of the titles in this series at the special set price of $64, by clicking on the button below.

About the Author

 Paul Turner, pastor of St. John Regis Parish in Kansas City, Mo., and more recently pastor of St. Munchin Parish in Cameron, Mo., holds a doctorate in sacramental theology from Sant’ Anselmo University in Rome. He is a regular columnist for Ministry & Liturgy magazine and author of ML Bulletin Inserts.

 Introduction

 Groundwork Questions

 1. What is the catechumenate?

 2. What is the RCIA?

 3. What are the National Statutes?

 4. What are the primary resources for the catechumenate?

 5. What is the history of the catechumenate?

 6. Why don’t we do it the old way where the priest did it all?

 7. Who should be on a catechumenate team?

 8. How does the whole community get involved?

 Precatechumenate

 9. What is evangelization?

 10. What is a candidate?

 11. What is the difference between a catechumen and a candidate?

 12. What is a convert?

 13. Which baptisms do we accept?

 14. What should we cover in a first interview?

 15. Can we accept a candidate from another parish?

 16. Do children enter a catechumenate?

 17. What is catechetical age?

 18. Can a child be accepted into the catechumenate if the parents are not interested?

 19. What is the precatechumenate or inquiry?

 20. What happens at a precatechumenate session?

 21. Can someone’s marital status keep them from becoming a Catholic?

 22. What is an annulment?

 Catechumenate

 23. How do you know when someone is ready to move from precatechumenate to the catechumenate?

 24. What is a sponsor supposed to do?

 25. What is the difference between a sponsor and a godparent?

 26. What is the rite of acceptance?

 27. What is the rite of welcoming?

 28. When should the rites of acceptance and welcoming take place?

 29. Why does the rite of acceptance start at the door of the church?

 30. How should the candidates answer the question “What do you ask of God’s church?”

 31. What is the first acceptance of the Gospel?

 32. Why are the candidates signed with a cross?

 33. Why does the invitation to the celebration of the word of God appear in the rite of acceptance, but not in the rite of welcoming?

 34. Why may catechumens receive a book containing the Gospels or a cross?

 35. Why do we dismiss catechumens at Mass?

 36. Should candidates be dismissed at Mass?

 37. How does the dismissal happen?

 38. What is catechesis?

 39. When should catechesis take place?

 40. Who leads the catechesis?

 41. How does a sample catechetical session look?

 42. What are the minor rites?

 43. What are celebrations of the Word?

 44. What is an exorcism?

 45. Who can lead an exorcism?

 46. What are the blessings of the catechumens?

 47. When can we use the oil of catechumens?

 48. Why does the period of the purification and enlightenment coincide with Lent?

 Purification and Enlightenment

 49. What is conversion?

 50. What is discernment?

 51. How do you know when someone is ready for baptism?

 52. What issues might keep someone from baptism?

 53. Under what circumstances does adult initiation happen apart from Lent and Easter?

 54. What is the rite of sending?

 55. What is the rite of election?

 56. Why does the rite of election take place at the cathedral?

 57. Who should sign the book?

 58. Should the book be signed at the parish or at the cathedral?

 59. May the rite of election be repeated?

 60. Is the sacrament of reconciliation necessary for catechumens and candidates?

 61. What is the penitential rite for candidates?

 62. What is a scrutiny?

 63. Why are the year A Gospels so important for the scrutinies?

 64. What is a presentation?

 65. What is the presentation of the creed?

 66. What is the presentation of the Lord’s prayer?

 67. Should the elect participate in the Triduum?

 68. How important are the preparation rites?

 69. What is the ephphetha?

 70. What is the recitation of the creed?

 71. Why is there no recitation of the Lord’s prayer?

 72. Should catechumens take a new name at baptism?

 73. What is the paschal fast?

 Initiation

 74. Why does baptism coincide with Easter?

 75. Why do we sing the litany of the saints?

 76. Why is water blessed?

 77. Why do the elect make baptismal promises?

 78. How do you baptize somebody?

 79. What is baptism by immersion?

 80. Why are the newly baptized not anointed on the crown of the head with chrism right away?

 81. Why do we offer the white garment?

 82. Why do we give the newly baptized a lighted candle?

 83. What is a neophyte?

 84. Why do we sprinkle with holy water at the Easter vigil?

 85. What is the rite of reception?

 86. When should the rite of reception take place?

 87. Why is confirmation part of the Easter vigil?

 88. Under what circumstances are priests allowed to confirm?

 89. Should children of catechetical age baptized at the Easter vigil be confirmed?

 90. Who should not be confirmed by a priest?

 91. How is confirmation administered?

 92. Why is communion significant at the Easter vigil?

 93. How is communion offered to neophytes?

 Mystagogy

 94. What is mystagogy?

 95. What does a mystagogy session look like?

 96. Why is the Easter octave significant for neophytes?

 97. Why is year A so important in mystagogy?

 98. How do you keep neophytes in mystagogy?

 99. Why is there a bishop’s Mass for neophytes?

 100. What kind of anniversary celebration should there be?

 101. What kind of pastoral care do we offer after mystagogy?

 Bibliography

 Index

Following is the introduction to The Catechumenate Answer Book. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2000, Resource Publications, Inc.

 Introduction

 If you have questions about the catechumenate, you are in good company. Lots of people do. The catechumenate gives external shape to an interior journey so personal that it raises questions for all who desire to celebrate it with faithfulness and flexibility. If you are helping someone step toward baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist, this book is for you.

 If you have questions about the catechumenate, you are also in the good company of people from generations long past. In sixth century Rome John the Deacon received a list of questions about the catechumenate from Senarius of Ravenna. In the ninth century Charlemagne sent a series of questions about baptismal rites to the greatest theologians of his day. In the tenth century the Roman-Germanic Pontifical included a glossary of terms used in the catechumenate for those unfamiliar with them. In the nineteenth century the question-and-answer format became a popular method of catechesis in works like the Baltimore Catechism. Something about the catechumenate just invites questions.

 The answers, of course, ultimately lie in the life, ministry, and promise of Jesus of Nazareth. This book hopes to steer you toward the one who pledges salvation, with whom the baptized share the vision of new life.