May 1, 2009
What does a sponsor do — after Easter?
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
For a long time, the role of an RCIA sponsor included attending all of the teaching sessions, and being with their catechumen/candidate until they entered the Catholic Church at Easter.
Now, there’s a new view of that role which hinges on the understanding that Christian initiation is just that — initiation — and not completion.
Benedictine Sister Geraldine Hedinger is the diocesan director of the RCIA program and the diocesan director of the Office for Adult Formation.
She visualizes the sponsor as “companion. The neophytes are adults, and we have to let them out of the nest,” she said, “but the sponsors need to be there to give support.”
She compares the sponsor/neophyte relationship to that of godparent/godchild noting that after infant Baptism there is a continued connection, an awareness that “something is significant about that relationship.”
In the USCCB document, “Journey to the Fullness of Life,” the American bishops noted that participants in the RCIA process believe its biggest weakness is a lack of follow-up. Sister Geraldine has heard estimates that 50 percent of all neophytes “fade away” in the years after their initiation into the Church — perhaps due to this disconnect with the Church after Easter.
In the USCCB document, which was issued in 2000, it was noted that a number of bishops have indicated concern about having an effective mystagogia, which is the final stage for the RCIA process. It was considered to be the weakest aspect of the RCIA program. The bishops noted in a survey their concern with having an effective mystagogia and keeping newly baptized and received Catholics active in their faith communities.
That’s where the sponsors can play a key role,” Sister Geraldine believes, “in pulling in those people into the parish community. There must be an awareness that ‘I need to keep journeying with this person and get them strongly rooted in this community.’”
The sponsor doesn’t serve as a theologian, she emphasized, but instead is a companion. “The sponsor encourages them to come to Sunday Mass, perhaps sits with them, introduces them to other parishioners, and then maybe goes to breakfast with them after Mass.”
As the relationship grows, the sponsor must be willing to share their own faith journey with the neophyte.
Being received into the Catholic Church at Easter can be a life-changing moment for the neophyte. “At its deepest core, the experience also needs to be life-changing for the sponsor,” Sister Geraldine believes. “The sponsor wrestles with the same issues and challenges to conversion that their catechumen/candidate is experiencing. It’s a real renewing time for sponsors.”
Mary Ann Miles has been the RCIA coordinator at St. Clement Church in Boonville since 1990. Her work has been a “blessing,” she said. “To have the privilege to walk with those who are wanting to know more about this faith of ours, to share our stories about the ways God has guided our lives.”
She knows that the challenge — both for sponsors and neophytes — occurs after Easter, maybe that first month, perhaps that first year, maybe longer. They both need to decide “how to nurture and feed their faith so it will continue to grow.”
She said that a few years ago, a nephew gave her a year’s membership to a gym. “I thought, ‘Wow! Now I can get fit and healthy, because I now am a member of this gym.’ But at the end of the year, I was not more fit or healthy because I only went and worked out a handful of times.”
It’s the same for the neophytes and their sponsors, “Easter is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning.” They both must decide how they will continue to feed and nurture their Catholic faith on the journey.”