Road least traveled

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 10, 2000 by Arthur Jones

The following summer, Yamane met his future wife: Megan Polzer, a deeply committed Catholic and fellow sociologist in-training, at the University of Wisconsin. Yamane began to attend Mass with her and gradually began to respond emotionally to the prayers and singing, he said.

He joined the church through the RCIA process, sometimes called the catechumenate. He married, finished graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, and was hired by the University of Notre Dame through an affirmative action program that provides for hiring qualified Catholic scholars even when a given department does not have the budget to hire. (The affirmative action program also applies to minorities and to academic "superstars.")

Notre Dame provided an academically safe place for a study of the catechumenate, Yamane said.

Among the questions his study is asking, using questionnaires and interviews:

What predisposes a person to turn to the Catholic church, assuming that some interior need leads them to want a deeper experience of religion? What is the role of friends or networks in leading people to the church? After a person becomes involved in catechumenate, what difference does that make in their lives? How do different approaches to the program affect the experiences that people have? What difference, if any, does good liturgy make? What happens to people after the program ends?

"I have a shelf full of works of theology that address what the RCIA should be, but we can all benefit from knowing what it actually is."

"Often there isn't good follow up," he said. "RCIA directors say they wonder what happens to people after they join the church."

As for goals for his research, beyond a contribution to his own field, Yamane hopes to produce findings that will be useful to parishes.

"Lots of people consider the RCIA one of the greatest things to come out of the Second Vatican Council. If we can build on the successes, that would be completing the work that was started there," he said.

--Pamela Schaeffer

ARTHUR JONES NCR Staff Washington