Expert: Griff Ruby - 11/29/2006

Question
Dear Griff, I was born of a Catholic mother who came from a large Catholic family. I was baptized at birth but given up for adoption. (I was taken care of by nuns until I was adopted by my parents at 3 months old). I was then raised and baptized as Presbyterian. I am married to a Catholic man and we attend mass together. I am wondering if I need to take RCIA classes in order to receive communion. Although I was raised protestant, I have Catholicism in my blood and feel so at home in the Catholic church. Any insight regarding this would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer
RCIA classes generally do not prove to be a very good source of an understanding of what Catholicism really is or teaches, though some places may require it.
A good solid catechism would be a much better thing to do to learn what the Faith really is all about.  A good catechism should address such basic topics as what is God, what is Man, why are we here, the doctrines (trinity, redemption, creation, Incarnation, Jesus, Mary, heaven, hell, purgatory, and so forth), morals (ten commandments of God, six commandments of the Church, prayer, sacrifice, good deeds), and the seven sacraments (the Mass, confession, and so forth).
The problem is that many modern "catechisms" and RCIA materials either neglect these topics or give them short shrift while devoting numerous pages and space to such meaningless things as "circles of family and community" or the environment and so forth.  This kind of dumbing down or watering down makes a real understanding of the Church difficult or impossible to glean from such a work.
Normally, I would have recommended the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism #2, but I just learned that it has been revised and have not had a chance to review it.  If you can be confident that you are finding an older edition that would be good, or better yet I recommend a facsimile reprint of the original Baltimore Catechism #3 available here:
http://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/71/keywords/Balti...
The best thing to do is to be rooted in the classical books of the Church, and this is a good start.
Perhaps some will say that the information is out of date.  When it comes to Catholic teachings nothing real is ever out of date.  Rather, some people (and even some parishes) just fail to live up to all of what it really is and modernize by concealing much of the truth.  It's a sad state of affairs, but there is nothing like knowing the truth yourself for being able to help others who need it.
Your baptism at birth is what counts (attempts to repeat it are valueless at best, sacrilegious at worst), but you will want to seek the sacrament of Confirmation, and to be officially joined to the Church.  Your priest will have to help you with those things, of course.
I hope some of this helps, sorry for the delay, God bless!