I just simply don’t read Dave Pawlak often enough!

The within post (an obscure usage to be sure, Nihil Obstat, though familiar to those who read legal documents) has to do with the materials he used in teaching RCIA classes. Those must have been good classes with that much (and that good) material. They would have been much more theologically-oriented than were mine.

My RCIA experience, as I mentioned before, witnessed to the breadth of the Church. That was even included in class materials. We didn’t always use the same Bible translation, for example, but tried many approved translations so that each person could find appropriate to him. We had a forgettable book by a Premonstratensian who, IIRC, was from Wisconsin. I think the book was originally intended for use with high school students. Then again, we didn’t use it much. We saw some rather old videos with an endearing (and orthodox) Jesuit. We had several laypeople from the parish give presentations on areas of particular interest to them – the St. Vincent de Paul society, a Rosary group, etc. The parish priest gave a memorable presentation on conscience. The RCIA leader individualized our readings to a high degree by providing different books to each of us, keyed more to our own particular areas of concern.

We were a large group, so it was common to split into small groups for discussion. Each group would have several candidates/catechumens and at least one experienced Catholic. Having so many people involved in the process was a good way to address the easily adopted fallacy that there’s only one way to be Catholic. (More to come on this later.)

I went to a couple of the early sessions of the next year’s RCIA, but family circumstances prevented me from going more often. So far it doesn’t look good for me to participate on a regular basis this year either. I would very much like, though, to talk with this year’s group a bit about church history and the saints. So many converts have a difficult time with the saints’ intercession (and too few modern Catholics seem to give it enough thought) that it seems like a topic ripe for some high-energy attention.