News

Springdale parish has two RCIA programs to serve needs

Published: March 22, 2008   

By Patricia May
Springdale Correspondent

Sandra Ware

Sister Gisela Rivera, CMST, talks to Spanish-speaking RCIA participants March 11 at St. Raphael Church in Springdale. She offers two sessions weekly.

Sandra Ware

Sister Gisela Rivera, CMST, talks to Spanish-speaking RCIA participants March 11 at St. Raphael Church in Springdale. She offers two sessions weekly.

SPRINGDALE -- St. Raphael Church may be the largest parish in the state, but that didn't deter Theresa Ponder when she decided to join the Church.

"It's really, really nice," Ponder said of the Springdale church and its RCIA team. "They're not intimidating. I would recommend anyone go there."

Likewise, Iliana Valenzuela didn't give a thought to parish size when she joined St. Raphael's Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. She visited other Catholic churches in northwest Arkansas but felt most comfortable at St. Raphael's.

"Every time I come here to church, they take the time to explain things," she said.

Valenzuela and her three children have attended the Spanish RCIA program since last fall. Ponder attends RCIA in English.

Having a separate RCIA program for English- and Spanish-speaking inquirers makes St. Raphael unique, but it's also controversial.

Cindy Shaw, St. Raphael's director of religious education, said RCIA team members often hear from other parishes that they should combine the groups.

"People say you're doing a disservice" by having separate groups. The language and culture of the groups are so different, they seem best addressed separately in this case, Shaw said.

Other church activities are inclusive. "We do so many things together as a parish," she said.

The Hispanic classes meet for two hours weekly and at least half of each class is for the whole family -- parents, children, teens all together rather than in separate groups as is the customary practice for people coming into the Church.

Sister Gisela Rivera, CMST, said that was her idea. She is the parish's director of religious education for Spanish-speaking adults.

Sister Gisela, a Mexico native, came to the United States as an 18-year-old girl, unable to speak any English. She said she quickly overcame that obstacle and became a teacher, spending many years teaching in Houston. It was in Texas that she first tried the family approach to RCIA and found the Hispanic population enthusiastically embraced the practice.

Sister Gisela said she recommended trying the same thing when she moved to St. Raphael in 2003 and then-pastor Msgr. Scott Friend agreed.

Current pastor Father John Antony also sees the benefits of both approaches.

"It is certainly a beautiful idea to combine the two RCIA programs and the celebrations of the sacraments of initiation," he said in an e-mail interview. "Each culture can learn a lot from the other. However, at St. Raphael's, that is a mathematical impossibility considering the size of our church."

Though the parish has 16,000 members, the church seats only 850 people, which is not enough space to seat all the candidates and elect, their families, the priests and servers, Father Antony explained.

"So, it's basically a question of space and logistics. I'm certainly not opposed philosophically" to combining the two.

This year, about 110 people are expected to enter the Church at Easter Vigil Masses at St. Raphael Church. This includes 28 people in the English RCIA and 81 people in the Hispanic RCIA.

But what about a family approach for the English speakers?

Father Antony said he believes it could be a good idea. "However, generally," he added, "it seems that, for Americans, their faith is a more personal and individual experience. In the Hispanic culture, faith is very much a family experience and process."

He said introducing the family program into the English RCIA "would be similar to insisting that Americans eat jalapeno peppers: While it's delicious for Hispanics, I suspect it would not be appetizing for (all) Anglos."

When Sister Gisela explained the reason for family involvement, it almost sounds like a clever ruse to hook the whole family on participating in church activities.

If a teenaged couple comes to classes with intentions to marry, Sister Gisela said she requires they bring their parents.

"Then, if the mother likes (RCIA), she invites her husband." Then they might invite other relatives or friends, bringing still more people into the Church, Sister Gisela added.

Valenzuela, a single mother, said she moved from Los Angeles to northwest Arkansas hoping to find a better life away from gang violence and drugs for her three children. She was raised in the Catholic Church by her grandmother but wanted to know more about her faith. She and her three children, Bernice, 14, Antonio, 7, and Raymond, 6, have attended RCIA sessions since November.

Valenzuela said many of the people attending the Spanish-language program haven't had a chance to learn about the Church before. They may have grown up in small villages in Mexico or other countries where there wasn't a church or priest.

While Valenzuela was born in the United States and speaks English fluently, she considers Spanish her first language, and she likes being with other Spanish-speaking people in class. Sister Gisela tends to assign small groups to work together so they get to know and support each other, Valenzuela said.

"RCIA to me is like one big family. ... We talk and we listen," she said. Valenzuela joined the RCIA program late last fall so she will not be confirmed at the Easter Vigil. Instead, Valenzuela will continue attending sessions so she can be confirmed later.

Myrna Cruz also attends the Spanish-language RCIA (ree-ka, she said the class members call it) with her two sons, Eder, 12 and Iker, 8.

"I'm Catholic," Cruz said, "but in my (hometown) churches, we didn't have too much information about biblical studies." A native of Mexico City, Cruz said she wants to become a naturalized American citizen. Her sons will receive first Communion this year.

She agreed that many Hispanics, while they may consider themselves Catholic, have moved from areas where the Church presence was limited.

When they come to the United States, immigrants are often so busy working and trying to establish new lives that they may not immediately find a church or have their children receive the sacraments, Cruz said.

In her case, her family previously lived in Los Angeles and the churches there required the family attend Mass for two years in the parish before children could receive first Communion, Cruz said.

This year, so many people wanted to join the Hispanic RCIA that there are two sessions weekly, one on Tuesday evenings and another on Saturday morning.

Karen Hyatt, RCIA coordinator for the English RCIA, said she has a team of eight volunteers who help in various ways, from supplying refreshments to teaching portions of the classes. At least half of Hyatt's team are converts -- all of whom attended RCIA at St. Raphael.

Hyatt and her husband attended RCIA in New Orleans. And their two youngest sons converted when the family lived in Mississippi.

Ponder lives in Huntsville but easily found St. Raphael in Springdale. She works at the Harps general offices, a short distance from the church, and decided she wanted to become a Catholic, like most of her mother's family.

As a member of the elect, she'll be baptized, receive her first Communion and be confirmed at the Easter Vigil. Then, she and her fiancé will begin attending marriage instructions classes in preparation for their Oct. 18 wedding.

"I can't wait to get my Eucharist for the first time," she said enthusiastically.