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Tonight being Easter Vigil is a special night for those in the RCIA program. Tonight, they will receive full acceptance into the Church including Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

by Fr. William Saunders Other Articles by Fr. William Saunders Traveling the Path to Catholicism 04/12/06 Recently I saw a picture showing the Rite of Election at the cathedral. Would you please explain more about the Rite of Election and RCIA? When I was growing up, we did not have such a program. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) is a formal program of catechetical instruction, ascetical practice (prayer and spirituality), and liturgies whereby adults — called catechumens — are formally admitted into the Church and receive the sacraments of initiation — baptism, confirmation, and holy Eucharist. (The sacrament...

Washington DC, Mar. 07, 2006 (CNA) - More than 1,000 children, teenagers and adults filled the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast yesterday to prepare to enter the Catholic Church this Easter. A number that is increasing each year. Children and adults and their families and friends joined church officials in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, a liturgy marking the final period of preparation before the sacraments of initiation at Easter. The liturgy is held each year on the first Sunday of Lent. As many as 1,233 people are expected to...

ROME, NOV. 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. Q: What is the current stand of the Church regarding the possibility of funeral Masses "in corpore presente" of persons who are said to have committed suicide? Is it true that there already are mitigating circumstances, like the possibility of irrationality at the moment of taking one's life (even if there was no note), whereby it would be possible to suppose that the person was not in his right mind, and that therefore it is licit to let the funeral entourage...

ROME, NOV. 1, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. Q: Recently I received a baptized Christian into the Catholic Church during a Mass in which the person received holy Communion. The RCIA ritual encourages the candidate to go to confession before the Mass and Communion, and this was done. However, since the confession was made before the candidate was actually in the Catholic Church, how could it have been a valid Catholic sacrament? Or does the absolution take effect only when the person is received into the Church? I cannot...

by Heidi Hess Saxton Other Articles by Heidi Hess Saxton Real Catholics, Warts and All 05/19/05 In 1988, contemporary recording artist John Fischer launched his bestseller Real Christians (Don’t) Dance, an unabashed manifesto of those who refuse to put form ahead of substance, and charity above all. After ten years spent in various Catholic parishes and groups, I’ve discovered that much of what Fischer says about Evangelical Protestants applies equally as well to Catholics: There are Pharisees on both sides of the great ecclesial divide, who (as Jesus observed) are excruciatingly attentive to detail, yet never think to welcome the stranger...

WASHINGTON (March 17, 2005)—More than 150,000 Americans will join the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday, March 26, through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Among them, almost 65,000 participated in the Rite of Election with their bishops at the beginning of Lent. About 27,500 of the group will be baptized, confirmed and receive Holy Eucharist for the first time on Holy Saturday. More than 36,000, who already have been baptized, will embrace full membership in the Catholic Church. With 87 percent of the U.S. dioceses reporting, the 2005 numbers exceed those of 2004. Another estimated 90,000 men and...

Ethics & Religionby Michael J. McManus Return to Column Index August 2, 2003 Column #1,144 Father John McCloskey: Catholic Evangelist America's most successful Catholic evangelist since Bishop Fulton J. Sheen is not at all as famous as the bishop was in the 1950s with a weekly network TV show. You have probably never heard of Father C. John McCloskey. However, consider some of his converts: - Dr. Bernard Nathanson, founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, who was personally involved in 75,000 abortions, before becoming a prominent pro-life advocate with the book "Aborting America" and the stunning video,...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- During this year's Easter Vigil Masses, tens of thousands of people across the country will be welcomed into the Catholic Church. Last year more than 150,000 Americans were baptized as Catholics or joined in full communion with the church during the Easter Vigil. Those who are not yet baptized are called catechumens. At Easter they receive all three sacraments of Christian initiation -- baptism, confirmation and their first Eucharist. Those already baptized in other churches or who were baptized Catholic but not raised in the faith are called candidates. At Easter they receive confirmation and the Eucharist....

NEWTON, Mass. — L. George Chedid wants his eldest son to learn about math and science and all the rest of the academic subjects that children learn in elementary school. But he draws the line at his boy learning about same-sex “marriage” — especially at the impressionable age of 7. Chedid’s son was in first grade at Burr Elementary School in Newton, Mass., last spring when the principal announced over the intercom that the state was officially recognizing same-sex “marriages.” The school then sent several of its homosexual teachers to various classrooms — from kindergarten through fifth grade — to...

March 14, 2004Third Sunday of Lent Psalm: Sunday 14 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading IEx 3:1-8a, 13-15 Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb,the mountain of God.There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fireflaming out of a bush.As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,though on fire, was not consumed.So Moses decided,"I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,and see why the bush is not burned." When the LORD saw him coming over...

Q&A - RCIA and Holy Saturday On Holy Saturday, April 11, the Catholic Church in the United States will receive tens of thousands of men and women in the Church. Parishes welcome these new members through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) and a ceremony bringing men and women into full communion with the Catholic Church. Listed here are some questions and answers related to these events. What is the RCIA? The RCIA, which stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, is a process through which non-baptized men and women enter the Catholic Church. It includes...