Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

RCIA Thoughts: Motives For Becoming Catholic

I was at another meeting of the RCIA group tonight, the purpose of which was for the inquirers (hopefully future catechumens and candidates) to tell the stories of how they came to be there.

One thing that particularly struck me listening to all these is that while the reasons people come into the Church are often pragmatic (want to get married, want to bring kids up in a church, spouse is Catholic, etc.) people's feelings about the decision to become Catholic are almost invariably very strong. Being around parish administration a certain amount, one often hears a certain amount of cynicism about people only wanting their sacraments in order to achieve some visual milestone and then vanishing, and it's true that this does indeed happen. Just because people feel strongly about something at the moment does not mean they will stick with it. People are often not very faithful to what was a year or two ago a fervent resolution.

But here, as when I was working with RCIA a few years back, it strikes me yet again that people always seem to come expressing genuine hunger for God. And as physical creatures, it is perhaps natural that that hunger is often aroused and brought to a crisis point by events in our lives as physical creatures, such as getting married, having children, or the death of a loved one.


j. christian said...

Nothing clarifies the mind like getting married in the morning. Or something like that. That was certainly true in my conversion experience.

Danimal said...

It's funny -- it was almost assumed that I was in RCIA because I wanted to get married, or just had never been confirmed. Moreso among the congregation, and non-Catholic friends, but even among the teachers. For me it was an eight-year journey from hardcode fundamentalist/evangelical to joining the Church.

christopher said...

I don't know if you ever follow Stacey, from "Almost There" (, but she's got a great story in her steps back to Rome. She just recently signed up for RCIA.

What parish do you do this through, if you don't mind me asking?

Mister Wolf said...

Ah, motives for becoming catholic...

This is a question I often ask myself, especially since I'm an inquirer, myself.

For me, it's not so much finding god(I find myself closer to god while studying theology, writing, and drawing).

Why I might join the catholic church is a mix of community, stability(Protestantism is constantly breaking apart these days), and the liturgy(I'm a fan of high church type). Not to mention I have strong respect for the current Bishop of Rome(he's a superb theologian).

So far, it's been rather interesting. And I've realized a long time ago that no church is perfect(we are humans after all) but Rome, at least here in the States is about the best around.