August 30, 2026 - Pastor Message
August 29, 2026THE ORDER(S) OF THE CHURCH
THE ORDER(S) OF THE CHURCH
“But grace has been given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift…And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, for the instruction of the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all come together in the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, in the perfect man, in the measure of the full maturity of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by the waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human falsehood…Rather, carrying out the truth in love, let us grow in him every way, who is Christ, the head, from whom the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, bringing about the body’s growth and building itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:7, 11-16).
You may have recently heard in the announcements before Mass or read in the bulletin about the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA, which, together with the whole Church around the world, we at St. Boniface are once again preparing to begin in earnest this fall. However, you are probably more familiar with the term RCIA, or Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which was introduced in the United States over fifty years ago. The concept is the same, but the terms are different. With some notable updates, both are the ordinary way by which non-Catholic adults explore, and, if they feel called to do so, enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. So why change the name? Why did the Church begin calling the process the OCIA instead of the RCIA about two years ago?
Like many things in the Church, there is the short answer and the long answer. The short answer is that, in 2001, under Pope John Paul II, the Holy See called for a more literal translation of liturgical rites from the official Latin texts produced in the Vatican into the languages of the people. The reason was the belief that a more literal translation would be a more faithful translation, promoting greater unity in the Church - the whole point of the liturgy. This led to a massive project by which bishops’ conferences around the world undertook the task of re-translating all the liturgical texts used for the celebration of the sacraments in their territories, a project which is still ongoing today.
This includes the former RCIA. In Latin, the process was always called the “Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum” but translated in the United States as the “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults”, emphasizing the ritual celebration of communion with the Church rather than the overemphasis on the legal aspects and instruction preceding the rituals that often characterized the process prior to the RCIA. In response to the new translation project mentioned above, the process was renamed the “Order of Christian Initiation of Adults”, as “Order” is a more literal translation of the Latin word “Ordo”, hence we now have the OCIA rather than the RCIA.
This may all seem academic and even a bit silly to some, but, as with any translation, the words we choose have meaning, which brings us to the long answer. In next week’s column, I will explore what the word “Order” means in the Church, particularly as it applies to the liturgy and sacraments, because, as I also mentioned above, the new translation project applies to the texts of all the sacraments, not just the RCIA. So, for example, instead of the Rite of the Baptism of Children, we now have the Order of the Baptism of Children, and, instead of the Rite of Marriage, we now have the Order of the Celebration of Matrimony. It is my hope that our reflection on the new terminology will lead us into deeper reflection on the sacraments themselves and thus a fuller, more fruitful celebration of all the sacraments here at St. Boniface.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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