Rite of Election

Participants in the Rite of Election are unbaptized adults known as catechumens, which derives from a Greek word for “being instructed.” 

Also taking part in OCIA classes, but not in the Rite of Election, are candidates – people who have been baptized as Catholics or in another denomination but who have not been confirmed or received the Eucharist. They will enter full communion with the Church upon being confirmed and receiving their first Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil.

The Rite of Election takes place each year on the First Sunday of Lent. Catechumens indicate their desire to join the Church by signing the Book of the Elect, giving them the title “members of the elect.” 

The word “election” in this case has nothing to do with politics; rather, it is a discernment that God is present in the life of the catechumens and is inviting them into a fuller life of the sacraments.

Celebration of the rite has two parts: a sending and a receiving. First, catechumens are sent by their parishes. This is a public pronouncement that they are ready to enter a covenant relationship through participation in the sacramental life of the Church. 

In the United States, this is done through their presentation to a bishop in a ceremony conducted at one or more parishes in a diocese. This is the first of many sendings they will experience in their faith journey.

Those who are sent can then be received. The bishop or auxiliary bishop of a diocese attends the Rite of Election, accepts the parish community’s judgment, receives the catechumens and invites them to enter their names in the Book of the Elect.