11 July 2024 / Inquiry, Training Articles / Jay Landry

Jay Landry is married to Deb with two adult daughters. He is the Director of Evangelization &
Faith Formation at the Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi in Raleigh, North Carolina.
He has served in evangelization, initiation, retreats, adult formation, and justice ministries for 27
years in parishes.

The catechumenate concisely describes the Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate: “This is a time, of no fixed duration or structure, for inquiry and introduction to Gospel values, an opportunity for the beginnings of faith.”

Over the years of initiation ministry, I have led catechumenate teams that created a syllabus of topics and set a date for The Rites of Acceptance and Welcome without having met the inquirers. We then gave presentations (more like lectures), inviting the inquirers to ask questions and discussion. Then, we celebrated these rites on the same date for all the inquirers, as if they were all in lockstep on the same spiritual journey. Sadly, this initiation path bore little fruit in terms of making disciples. Rather, it was closer to making “RCIA graduates,” many of whom fell away from the life and mission of the church in the next few years.

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