RCIA Now OCIA
Per the recently updated National Statutes for the Christian Initiation of Adults, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in English is now to be referred to as the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) as of December 1, 2024. Please make sure you update your paperwork and your website to reflect the updated terminology. The new OCIA book has been mandated for use as of March 5, 2025 (Ash Wednesday). Note for Spanish: In Spanish, the acronym remains RICA (“Rito” changed to “Ritual”). Everyone still needs to utilize the new translation of the RICA book for the U.S. as of March 5, 2025.
Sacramental Registers
The process for recording the sacraments received by catechumens and by candidates for reception into full Communion has not changed. You should continue to record the appropriate information into the corresponding sacramental register (i.e. baptism, confirmation, marriage) as instructed in the Sacramental Records Handbook, which can be found on the Office of Archives and Records website.
Please note the Sacramental Records Handbook has not yet been updated to reflect the new terminology of OCIA. Those updates will be made in the coming months along with several others and an announcement will be made when the newly updated version is published online. If you have questions about the handbook or about the registers below, you can contact the Office of Archives and Records at archives@archatl.com.
With the latest updates in the National Statutes for the Christian Initiation of Adults, the USCCB has added another optional register called the Register of Reception into Full Communion. If you choose to purchase and use the new Register of Reception into Full Communion, please make sure to include the following information:
- Full name of candidate
- Date and place of birth of candidate
- Full names of candidate’s parents
- Full name of the priest
- Full names of the sponsors
- Date and place of reception into full communion
- If the candidate is married, a notation of their spouse’s full name as well as the date and place of marriage should also be notated in the register.
If you have already been maintaining a register of catechumens or choose to start using one now, please make sure you include the following information in the register:
- Full name of catechumen
- Date and place of birth of catechumen
- Full name of the priest
- Full names of the sponsors
- Date and place of the rite for entrance into the catechumenate
Please note, as stated above, that you should continue to record the appropriate information for both catechumens and candidates into the corresponding sacramental register (i.e. baptism, confirmation, marriage) and in ParishSOFT as instructed in the Sacramental Records Handbook, which can be found on the Office of Archives and Records website. Also, the Book of the Elect remains in use (see National Statutes, Norm 15, and our archdiocesan guidelines).
ParishSOFT Family Suites
You can now track the progress of a catechumen throughout the OCIA process in ParishSOFT. We highly recommend that all parishes utilize these new fields in ParishSOFT to capture the initiation events for catechumens.
The events that are recommended to be recorded for catechumens are the following (please note all the scrutinies, while mandatory unless a dispensation is given, are not required to be recorded in any register):
- Rite of Entrance
- Rite of Election
- Scrutiny 1
- Scrutiny 2
- Scrutiny 3
Please see the attached step-by-step instructions for how to record an OCIA event in ParishSOFT Family Suite.
Contact Information
If you have questions regarding the OCIA process or the new changes, you can find the contact information for Office of Evangelization and Discipleship on their website.
If you have questions about entering OCIA information into ParishSOFT, please see the attached instructions or visit the Office of Finance website at for more ParishSOFT FAQs and contact information.
If you have questions about sacramental records, please review the Sacramental Records Handbook on the Office of Archives and Records website at or email archives@archatl.com with any questions.