What Does the Catholic Church Teach and Believe?

This process of learning the faith is a part of the Adult OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults). These Inquiry Sessions are designed for adults, either unbaptized or baptized in another faith tradition, who would like to know more about the Catholic Church.  Learn more here

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What is the OCIA?

“The Order of Christian initiation . . . is designed for adults who, after hearing the mystery of Christ proclaimed, consciously and freely seek the living God and enter the way of faith and conversion as the Holy Spirit opens their hearts. By God’s help they will be strengthened spiritually during their preparation and at the proper time will receive the sacraments fruitfully.” (OCIA, 1)

 Jesus invites us to “come and see” what life with Him can be:
“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’ The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them,’ Come, and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed).” – John 1:35-41 

OCIA Contact Information
Earl Tropp
Phone: (717) 533-7168

The ordinary sessions of the Catechumenate run from early September through May of each year. Sessions take place on Wednesdays from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm in the Parish Center. These sessions are designed to provide a structured and systematic introduction to the Christian faith in the Catholic tradition.

Baptized Christian seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.
​For individuals who were Baptized in another Church  but now want to join the Catholic Church please contact Earl Tropp at etropp@stjoanhershey,org 
Depending on your Religious education background we will design a program to fit your situation. There is no set time of the year for instruction.

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The Journey of Christian Initiation:

OCIA is a gradual coming to Christ. It occurs in steps which are arranged to assist the individual journey of each person. The community of faith supports and encourages the person through prayer, common reflection on the Word of God, the study of the Christian tradition, and by example, through living out fully the Christian way of life.

The steps of the OCIA are:

• Evangelization & Precatechumenate
  “The time of evangelization: in faith and constancy the living God is proclaimed, as is Jesus Christ, whom he sent for the salvation of all men. Thus those who are not yet Christians, their hearts opened by the Holy Spirit, may believe and be freely converted to the Lord.” (OCIA, 9)

• Catechumenate
  “The catechumenate, or formation of catechumens, aims at bringing their conversion and faith to maturity, in response to the divine initiative and in union with an ecclesial community. The catechumenate is to be ‘a formation in the whole Christian life . . . during which the disciples will be joined to Christ their teacher. The catechumens should be properly initiated into the mystery of salvation and the practice of the evangelical virtues, and they should be introduced into the life of faith, liturgy, and charity of the People of God by successive sacred rites.’”  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1248)

• Purification and Enlightenment
  “At this stage the Church makes the ‘election,’ that is, the choice and admission of the catechumens who because of their dispositions are worth to take part in the next celebration f the sacraments of initiation. This stage is called election because the admission made by the Church is founded in the election by God, in whose name the Church acts. It is also called enrollment or inscription of names because the candidates, as a pledge of fidelity, write their names in the book of elect.” (OCIA, 22)

• Mystagogy
  “A fuller, more fruitful understanding of the ‘mysteries’ is acquired by the newness of the account given to the newly baptized and especially by their experience of receiving the sacraments. They have been renewed in mind, have tasted more intimately the good word of God, have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have come to discover the goodness of the Lord. From this experience, which is proper to the Christian and is increased by the way he lives, they draw a new sense of faith, the Church, and the world.” (OCIA, 38)

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The Sacraments of Christian Initiation are Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist:

BAPTISM

• Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (†389): “Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift. . . .We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism because sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God’s Lordship.”
  

CONFIRMATION

• Tertullian(†222): “After coming from the place of washing we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, from the ancient discipline by which [those] in the priesthood . . . were accustomed to be anointed with a horn of oil, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses. . . . So also with us, the unction runs on the body and profits us spiritually, in the same way that baptism itself is a corporal act by which we are plunged in water, while its effect is spiritual, in that we are freed from sins. After this, the hand is imposed for a blessing, invoking and inviting the Holy Spirit" (Baptism 7:1–2, 8:1 [A.D. 203]).”
  

HOLY EUCHARIST

• Pope John Paul II (†2005), Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 1: “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: ‘Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age’ (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.
  
  The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’. ‘For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men’. Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love.”