OCIA Coordinators’ Weekly Update 11/08/2024
OCIA: Baptized Christians Seek to Join the Catholic Church
November 8, 2024
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The Catholic Church recognizes Christian baptism in sister churches as a bond that unites us in the Body of Christ.
In Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, the Constitution on the Church, “The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter.” The Decree on Ecumenism also reaffirms “Whenever the Sacrament of Baptism is duly administered as Our Lord instituted it, and is received with the right dispositions, a person is truly incorporated into the crucified and glorified Christ, and reborn to a sharing of the divine life.”
Those teachings also acknowledge that baptism is “only a beginning,” that it “envisages a complete profession of faith, complete incorporation in the system of salvation such as Christ willed it to be, and finally complete ingrafting in eucharistic communion.”
While we recognize our baptized sisters and brothers as joined to us in Christ, we do not share “eucharistic communion” with them.
Our Fall 2024 – Spring OCIA begins soon, on Monday, November 18, 2024, and concludes on Pentecost, June 8, 2025. The Sacraments of Initiation are celebrated at the Easter Vigil, Saturday, April 19. Sessions are scheduled on Monday evenings from 7 – 8:30 pm, with breaks for holidays. You may register for OCIA here.
Those who recently completed the sacraments of initiation in September and October will be “commissioned” this Sunday, November 10, at the 11:15 am Mass. This commissioning mirrors the commissioning of the apostles who were fully strengthened to go out to preach the gospel in word and by the example of their lives. All of us baptized in Christ receive this same mandate. We preach by living the example of Christ, who put his life at the service of others, especially the most vulnerable.
For more information, please contact Ed Harasim, OCIA Coordinator, eharasim@clement.org or Fr. Brett Williams, bawilliams@clement.org
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