RCIA online

In Paul Turner's Blog by Paul Turner

Q: Thank you so much for all the good, practical advice you give.

Lately I’ve had some people ask if they could take RCIA “on line”. My response is always an emphatic NO. I try to explain to them that becoming Catholic is not all about head knowledge, but also heart knowledge. It’s about community, celebrating the rites, and growing in faith and love of Christ,  which can’t be don on line. People often are not satisfied with my answer.

Can you help me out? Is there a better answer I could give? Is there some document that explains why on-line RCIA is not acceptable?

Many thanks,

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A: I can’t think of any document dealing with this, probably because online formation is such a recent phenomenon. But if you look at the famous paragraph RCIA 75 with its four groups of catechetical formation, you’ll see that they imply in-person connections.

In our parish we occasionally have an online session for those in formation due to weather, lack of space, or other challenges. But it’s rare.