Chai Brady
Catechumens listen to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at the ceremony in St Mary's Pro Cathedral Dublin Legacy of charity is attracting adults to Church, writes Chai Brady
The prevalence of religion in everyday life in Ireland is often a revelation for many immigrants, but particularly those coming from governments who put strict limits on religious freedom.
For the 31 catechumens entering the final stage of preparation for Baptism in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin this month, the majority grew up in the complicated religious landscape that is China.
The reasons given for their eagerness to join the Church, a process that takes at least one-year of reflection and studying the gospels, are as varied as the ethnicity and background of adults who decide to become Catholic under the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
The chaplain to the Chinese community in Westland Row Parish, Fr Anthony Hou, told The Irish Catholic that there are several reasons Chinese people tell him they want to join the Faith.
Discrimination
Irish peoples’ genial attitudes as well as the country’s culture of charity featured in many catechumens’ answers, with Fr Anthony saying: “The Chinese, they come to this country and they find the people are very friendly. They went to other countries, Italy or France, some experience very strong discrimination. But in this country, they find nothing of this regard.”
“They have also found many charity organisations, they ask: Why are there so many charity organisations in this country? It’s because of the Catholic affairs. So they become interested in Catholic affairs and get baptised.”
There were 14 people who followed a year-long process of catechumenate – which includes attending about 45 classes – from Westland Row parish at the ceremony on February 18 and will be baptised at the Easter Vigil.
The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who thanked all of the catechumens for their witness and said their presence was a sign of the “renewed sense of the Christian vocation and the call to holiness of all Christian faithful”.
Dr Martin spoke to the catechumens about the battle between good and evil in the world, and referenced the “senseless violence and total disregard for life that has marked the streets of Dublin recently. This is simply evil no matter how some may try to justify it even to glorify it. Evil is evil and those who work such evil are evil.”
However, he said that it is wrong to be “morbidly preoccupied” with evil, and overlook the good in the world.
He told the catechumens: “The project of Jesus is always a project of love. We must combat evil with love in the knowledge that the Good News of God can triumph where our human means seem doomed to failure. Lent is a time of penance but not a time where sadness and despondency dominates.”
Fr Anthony said that there are 250 people in his Chinese community, 90% of them who were baptised in recent years, and all are asked similar questions regarding their motivation for wanting to join the Church.
“We ask the people if they believe in God, because in China you are told there is no God and no religion and that the human being is some kind of animal,” Fr Anthony said, adding that they ask catechumens about death, work and more. He said they discuss Thomas Aquinas’s ‘Five Proofs’ in approaching a philosophical argument about the existence of God.
“People in China live in a communist country; the communists are atheist and they wouldn’t teach any religion in a school – in a society. There is limited religious freedom in China so they wouldn’t have a chance to know Catholic affairs,” he said.
“They come to Ireland, and this is a Catholic, religious culture, there are very few atheists. So they want to become part of this nation.”
The structure that exists in China is split between the Church that is recognised by the state, and the underground Church which came into existence after the establishment of the communist People’s Republic of China in the 1950s, which subsequently led to the government’s efforts to exercise control over religion.
This has long caused a complicated relationship between the Vatican and Beijing, and gives an insight into the struggle some people face practicing religion in China.
Being thousands of miles from home offers opportunities, but can also can be difficult for people who crave comforts from a culture so far removed from what they grew up with.
Community
Fr Anthony says they have created a “community of love” for Chinese people living in Ireland, and hold Masses in St Andrew’s Church in the Chinese language on the second and fourth Sunday of the month at 12.30pm, which are normally attended by about 60 people.
“For the Chinese New Year we have a celebration, we ask Catholics who were baptised to come to the celebration. We also ask their friends to come and see what we are doing,” Fr Anthony said, adding that they also celebrate many of the traditional Chinese holidays.
In Christmas 2016 the chaplain said they had record numbers that came to the service, 230 altogether, and that he hopes to maintain the growth of his parishioners. Unfortunately last year bad weather and the flu reduced attendance.
Fr Anthony was lauded by the Master of Ceremonies in the Archdiocese of Dublin, Fr Damian McNeice, for his work with catechumens.
Fr Damian said many parishes don’t have the ability to accompany adults in their Faith journey due to a lack of resources.
“If parishes have a baptism preparation team, if they have a Lectio Divina group or a Faith sharing group already they have got the vast majority of the tools they need to be a group who can welcome people who are curious about exploring the Faith more – helping them to get to know Christ through the Gospels,” he said.
“People who come to parishes, they’re coming sometimes from a ground zero of Christian Faith understanding. Some people are coming from former communist states where any expression of Faith was really condemned, was impossible, wasn’t public witness.”
Many others, Fr Damian said, come from Catholic schools on other continents but were never baptised, and their “heart search” leads them to the Church.
With a huge spectrum of knowledge about the Faith, from a well-defined understanding of who Jesus is, the life of the Church and prayer, to literally starting from scratch: it can be difficult for parishes to cater to adults looking to become part of the Church.
“So what every parish needs to do in some way, if it’s possible if they have those resources, to be able to set up an accompaniment group to accompany people for one, two, sometimes even three or four years before the person and the parish discerns they’re ready to be initiated,” Fr Damian said.
There can also be a period of ‘pre-evangelisation’ where the prospective catechumen is asked to discuss the Church and why it has attracted them. For some it “a very long hard search” Fr Damian said, but for others it can be as simple as the person who was kindest to them in their childhood was a person of Faith.
He used St Augustine’s words in 400AD to emphasise how to treat those looking to join the Church: by treating them as a child and asking them the reason they have come, and taking that as a starting point.
The RCIA process has four stages and three steps, or liturgical rights, which are interspersed throughout.
Inquiry is the first stage, which is a period of time in which the first preaching of the Gospel is heard. The second stage is that of the catechumenate which involves thorough instruction and formation.
This is followed by a period of purification and enlightenment, which ideally takes place during Lent and is designed to be a period of intense spiritual preparation.
The final stage is called ‘mystagogy’, the Greek word for ‘interpretation of mystery’. It is a time for spiritual growth and for entering more fully into the Christian community.
The three liturgical rites are:
– The Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens;
– The Rite of Election;
– The celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation.
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In the Diocese of Meath, Ashbourne parish’s RCIA manual describes the types of people who decide to become Christians as adults by saying:
“There are three main types of participants (called Catechumens or Candidates) in the RCIA programme: those who are unbaptised, or who know very little about Christianity; those who were formed in other Christian denominations, but who are interested in joining the Catholic Church; and Adult Catholics who never completed their reception of the Sacraments of Initiation (Confirmation and/or Eucharist).”
There are several ways those who wish to participate in the RCIA tend to become involved: some approach a priest or other member of the parish; previous participants in the process tell them about it; a house visitation by a priest or member of the Legion of Mary sparks their interest; and older children show interest in completing their initiation.
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Catechetical specialist Brendan O’Reilly has run an RCIA programme in Ashbourne parish for the last eight years.
Fortunately for the parish Mr O’Reilly says there’s an adult presidium of the Legion of Mary who do house visitations, and “if they’re lucky” manage to get inside the door and discuss Faith matters and leave literature behind. While this would be one of the main draws for RCIA inquirers, the fact the parish has been running the programme for so long has also inspired curiosity.
In Ashbourne the process began when a Norwegian couple first expressed an interest in joining the Church to members of the Legion of Mary. They passed the message to the parish priest.
“Now that it is a live process in the parish for the past number of years people just know about it,” said Mr O’Reilly, “when people see the various rites taking place in public in the Church during Lent it is just part of the Faith conversation in this parish.”
“As a result people hear about this and show an interest, and become inquirers. That is how the seed is first planted.”
Currently he delivers the programme with the help of his wife, but as it’s a small team they can’t operate throughout the year.
“I know that the Holy Spirit doesn’t arrive on somebody’s doorstep in September or at the beginning of the liturgical year, people can express an interest at any time,” he said.
Mr O’Reilly advises inquirers that the official RCIA process begins in September but encourages them to go to Mass every Sunday – not to receive Holy Communion – pray with parishioners and to come for tea afterwards where he introduces the prospective Catholics to the people of the parish.
He said: “Until the actual official process of enquiry starts we ask them to come along to the Church and then we try and befriend them.”
Mr O’Reilly stated that the process is not an effort to proselytise, but they are asked to consider why they want to join the Church.
“Where are they in life, what are they struggling with, whereabouts are they on an inward journey, do they really want to become people of Faith, do they want to become Catholics, or are they thinking of joining the Church because they want to get children into the local school?” he said, explaining the questions asked of RCIA applicants.
The parish have two people completing the process this Easter, one is a complete initiate who will receive the three sacraments of initiation: Baptism, the Eucharist and Confirmation, the other received Baptism but was never confirmed.
Mr O’Reilly also tries to encourage people to get involved in the parish, to take upon a ministry, to learn the way of Christianity – such as by joining the Legion of Mary, joining the St Vincent de Paul Society or by becoming a Sacristan.
Over the past eight years Ashbourne parish have accompanied 24 people through the RCIA process under the leadership of Mr O’Reilly.
“I know that in the Diocese of Meath there doesn’t seem to be that many parishes [that offer RCIA programmes], the reason I say that is over the years anybody in east Meath, if they express any desire at all, they were sent over to Ashbourne to start talking to us and see what we could do with them,” he said.
The challenge for many people who run RCIA programmes is to keep them running, as many are elderly.
Mr O’Reilly said: “I’m 71, and I’ve been doing it now for eight years. I’m not going to live forever. It takes a lot of energy, when it is finished each year at Easter time – I’m human and normal – I do breathe a sigh of relief.
“The parish priest will say to me a couple of months later that there’s a few people interested I could not find it in myself to say no.”
While he has found young catechists to help him over the years, they were unable to commit long-term due to other obligations and life complications.
Catechumens are expected to go on a journey of self-reflection and discovery about the Christian Faith in order to join the Church, but as the ability to facilitate the RCIA programme in parishes is seemingly becoming increasingly limited, this could become more and more difficult.