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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
At the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council in 1963, the bishops were able to make a beginning to their legislative work by promulgating two documents which they fondly hoped would be uncontroversial: the unremarkable Decree on Mass Media, and the much more consequential Constitution on the Liturgy. Among the principles for the revision of the Roman Catholic Church’s sacraments contained in the second of these documents, instructions are given for the revision of the rites of initiation, including the following:
The catechumenate for adults is to be restored [instauretur] and broken up into several steps [gradibus], and put into practice at the discretion of the local ordinary. In this way the time of the catechumenate, which is intended for appropriate formation, can be sanctified through liturgical rites to be celebrated successively at different times. In mission territories, in addition to what is available in the Christian tradition, it should also be permitted to incorporate ceremonies [elementa] of initiation which are found to be customary in each society, provided they can be adapted to the Christian rite.
1 Sacrosanctum Concilium, 64, 65. The translation here and in other quotations from the Vatican II documents is my own; the Latin text can be consulted in Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. N. P. Tanner, 2 vols (London and Washington, DC, 1990).
2 Ad gentes, 13, 14.
3 Published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 54 (1962), pp. 310-38.
4 There are signs that St Augustine’s De catechizandis rudibus was one of the sources of these celebrations.
5 Mark 7.32-6.
6 See A. Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975 (Collcgcville, MN, 1990), p. 585.
7 The normative Latin text was entitled Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum (Vatican City, 1972). The official English translation, made by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. (ICEL), has appeared in several editions and recensions according to the pastoral needs of each English-speaking region throughout the world. One edition of the version authorized for use in Britain is entitled The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: a Study Book (London, 1988) [hereafter RCIA]. Because of these regional adaptations, no standard system of paragraph numbers has been devised, though many editions give marginal references to the original Latin; moreover the ICEL version sometimes conflates two distinct paragraphs of the Latin text. In this paper I give two numbers for each reference: the first refers to the British edition, the second, in square brackets, refers to the Latin.
8 RCIA, 6 [6].
9 RCIA, Table appended at 36 [not in Latin].
10 RCIA, 6 [6], 42 [15].
11 RCIA, 36, Table.
12 RCIA, 53 81.
13 RCIA, 42 15.
14 RCIA, 43 16.
15 RCIA, 47 18.
16 RCIA, 36, Table.
17 RCIA, 7 [7].
18 RCIA, 76 [98].
19 RCIA, 78 [99].
20 RCIA, 126 [cf. 22, 153].
21 RCIA, 128 [25, 154].
22 The Gospels for the three scrutinies are all taken from John, and each highlights a different symbol of Christ’s saving work; they are respectively the stories of the Samaritan woman (‘living water’: 4.5-16, 19-26, 39-42), the cure of the man born blind (‘the light of the world’: 9.1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-8) and the raising of Lazarus (‘the resurrection and the life’: 11.3-7, 17, 20-7, 330-45).
23 RCIA, 139 162].
24 RCIA, 134 [25].
25 RCIA, 193 [207].
26 RCIA, 198 [27].
27 RCIA, [215, 380].
28 RCIA, 217
29 RCIA, 203
30 RCIA, 207
31 RCIA, 208
32 RCIA, 222 [224].
33 RCIA, 207 [33].
34 The word which was proclaimed throughout all Judca, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power’ (Acts 10.37-8).
35 My italics.
36 General Introduction n.4. This General Introduction is normally printed before the text of the RCIA.
37 St Paul indicated the link between the eucharist and the Church, both of which he describes as Christ’s body: The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread’ (I Cor. 10.16-17).
38 RCIA, 244 [37].
39 Matt. 28.19.
40 Acts 2.38.
41 E.g. Acts 8.12-17, 8.36-9, 10.44-8.
42 Throughout the early centuries Church Orders were conventionally given names which suggested they derived from the apostles.
43 Such is the opinion of J.-P. Audet, La Didachè (Paris, 1958).
44 The provenance, authorship, and reliability of the Apostolic Tradition remains the subject of debate among scholars. For a brief account of the debate, see C. Joncs, G. Wainwright, E. Yarnold, and P. Bradshaw, The Study of Liturgy, 2nd edn (London, 1992), pp. 87-9.
45 The English reader will enjoy the illustrative material collected in J. Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels (London, 1971; rev. edn, Jerusalem and Warminster, 1981).
46 Some wish to give the Euchologion a later date; see Jones, The Study of Liturgy, p. 91.
47 For an account of these liturgical texts see G Vogel, Medieval Liturgy: an Introduction to the Sources, rev. and trans. W. Storey and N. Rasmusscn (Washington, DC, 1986).
48 For a fuller summary of the evidence, see E. J. Yarnold, The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1994).
49 Apostolic Tradition, ed. in B. Botte, La Tradition apostolique de saint Hippolyte, LQF 39 (Miinstcr Westfalen, 1963) [= Hippolyte de Rome: La tradition apostolique, d’après les anciens versions, ed. B. Botte, SC 11 bis, 2nd edn (Paris, 1984)], cc.15-21. This is how after his description of first communion the author refers to what was later called ‘Mystagogy’: ‘But if it is desirable for anything to be explained, the bishop should speak in private to those who have received baptism’ (c.21).
50 Sign of the cross and salt: Confessions, I, xi, 17. Laying on of hands: De peccatorum meritis et remissione, II, xxvi, 42 (PL 44, col. 17a).
51 Confessions, I, xi, 17.
52 Apostolic Tradition, ed. Botte, c17; Clement of Alexandria, Strontata, II, xviii, 95-6: Clemens Alexandrinas, Zweiter Band: Stromata, Buck I-VJ, ed. O. Stahlin, Die Grcichische Christliche Schriftstcllcr dcr ersten drei Jahrhunderte, 3rd edn, rev. L. Fruchter (Berlin, 1960), pp. 164.15-165.14.
53 Augustine wonders whether the reason for the postponement of his own baptism was the desire to allow him freedom to sin, and quotes the commonly heard remark: ‘Leave him alone, let him do it He is not baptized yet’ (Confessions, I, xi, 18).
54 See J. Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries (London, 1960), pp. 88-9.
55 Augustine’s catechetical sermons and the accompanying rites arc examined by W. Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate (Collcgcville, MN, 1995). Harmless identifies twenty-two passages in Augustine’s extant sermons in which he expressly addresses the catechumens (pp. 191-2). C(. M. Dujarier, A History of the Catechumenate: the First Six Centuries (New York, 1979).
56 Egeria’s Travels, Newly Translated with Supporting Documents and Notes, ed. J. Wilkinson, rev. ed. (Warminster, 1981), xlv.
57 Cyril, Procatechesis, c.5, in S. Patris nostri Cyrilli Hierosolymorum archiepiscopi Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. W. K. Rcischl and J. Rupp, 2 vols (Munich, 1848-60), 1, p. 8.
58 Ibid., 1, p. 6 (c.4).
59 Many sources refer to these rites. For references see, for example, Yarnold, Awe- Inspiring Rites, pp. 9-17; Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate, ch. 7.
60 Ambrose, Explanatio symboli, 1; included in Ambroise de Milan: Des sacraments, des mystères, explication du symbole, ed. B. Botte, SC 25 bis (Paris, 1961), pp. 46-7.
61 The evidence for these rites is set out in Jones, The Study of Liturgy, pp. 134-44; Yarnold, Awe-Inspiring Rites, pp. 17-34.
62 For an overall account of the design of early baptisteries, see J. G. Davies, The Architectural Setting of Baptism (London, 1962); S. A. Stauffer, On Baptismal Fonts: Ancient and Modem, Alcuin-GROW Liturgical Studies, 29-30 (Nottingham, 1994). On the small subsidiary fonts, cf. Davies, Architectural Setting, p. 26.
63 On the baptistery in Naples, see J. L. Maicr, Le baptistère de Naples et ses mosaïques, étude historique et iconographique, Paradosis, 19 (Fribourg, 1964).
64 On the Milanese baptisteries, cf. H. M. Roberti, ‘Contributi della ricerca archeologica all’architectura ambrosiana milanese’, in G. Lazzari, ed., Ambrosius Episcopus: atti del Congresso internazionale di studi ambrosiani nel XVI centenario della elevazione di sant’Ambrogio alla cattedra episcopale, Milano, 2-7 dicembre 1974, 2 vols, Studia patristica Mediolanensia, 6-7 (Milan, 1976), 1, pp. 352-9.
65 According to Ambrose his font (or does he mean baptistery?) was shaped like a tomb: ‘Hcstcrno de fonte disputavimus, cuius species vcluti quaedam sepulcri forma est’ (De sacramentis, III, i, 1, in Botte, Ambroise de Milan, pp. 90-1).
66 On the use of the liturgy as a means of evoking awe, and on the Disciplina arcani, cf. Yarnold, Awe-Inspiring Rites, pp. 55-66.
67 Some of these factors arc examined by Bryan Wilson, Contemporary Transformations of Religion (Oxford, 1976).
68 The criticisms made here under headings 2 and 3 arc expressed with characteristic verve by A. M. Greeley, ‘Against R. C. I. A.’, America, 161 (1989), pp. 231-4.
69 On the interpretation of the patristic rite of scrutiny the key article was written by A. Dondeyne, ‘La discipline des scrutins dans l’église latine avant Charlemagne’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 28 (1932), pp. 5-33, 751-87. See also H. A. Kelly, The Devil at Baptism (Ithaca, NY, and London, 1985).
70 Apostolic Tradition, c.20. This translation is based on B. Bottc’s reconstruction of tlie oriental texts: Botte, La Tradition apostolique, pp. 42-3; Botte, Hippolyte de Rome, p. 78.
71 Zeno, Tractatus, I, ii, 6 (PL 11, col. 374): ‘Discoloratur per momenta color, figura sua tollitur a natura, in oblíquos horrores insani vertuntur orbes oculorum, acies dentium spumosis hórrida globis inter labra liventia stridit, intorta omnia passim membra tremore vibrantur, gemit, Act’ My thanks to G. P. Jeanes for this reference.
72 ‘Inquisitimi est, ne immunditia in corporc alicuius haererct. Per exorcismum non solum corporis, sed ctiam animae quaesita et adhibita est sanctificatio’; Expianatio symboli, 1.
73 Augustine, Sermon 216, 10-11: PL 38, col. 1082.
74 Sermon 216, 6: PL 38, col. 1080.
75 De symbolo, i.i: PL 40, col. 637. This sermon, once included among Augustine’s works, is now generally attributed to his disciple Quodvultdeus.
76 Leo, Epistle xvi, 6: PL 54, col. 702.
77 John the Deacon, Ad Senarium, 4, in A. Wilmart, ed., Analecta reginensia: extraits des manuscrits latins de la reine Christine conservés au Vatican, Studie Testi, 59 (1933), pp. 170-9.