Church in the UK
How do I become a Catholic?
You become a Catholic by contacting your local Catholic parish and joining its preparation course, usually called RCIA. If you have never been baptised, you are baptised, confirmed and receive Holy Communion for the first time, normally at Easter. If you were baptised in another church, you are received into the Catholic Church without being baptised again.
This page describes the Catholic route in particular. The site as a whole does not set out to steer you towards one church. The page on baptism in the UK covers how other churches welcome new Christians, and the pages on denominations and on Catholics and Protestants set out the wider picture.
Start with a conversation
Every Catholic church belongs to a parish, and every parish has a priest whose job includes helping people who want to join. Find your nearest church by searching online for a Catholic church near you, or through the parish finder on the website of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (Scotland has its own Bishops’ Conference). Then phone or email the parish office, or simply go to Sunday Mass and speak to the priest at the door afterwards. Say that you are interested in becoming a Catholic and would like to know what the next step is. You do not need to have made up your mind.
RCIA: the course
Most parishes prepare adults through a programme called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, almost always shortened to RCIA. Some parishes now use the newer name, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA. It is the same thing. A group of enquirers meets weekly, usually on a weekday evening from the autumn through to Easter, with the priest and a few trained lay people called catechists. The sessions work through what Catholics believe: who God is, who Jesus is, the Creed, the Bible, prayer, the Mass, the sacraments and how Christians live. You can ask anything. Alongside the meetings you are encouraged to come to Sunday Mass, where you will be welcome even though you do not yet receive Communion.
The stages
- Enquiry. An open-ended period of asking questions and getting to know the parish, with no commitment.
- Becoming a catechumen. If you decide to go on and have never been baptised, a short ceremony at Sunday Mass welcomes you as a catechumen, the ancient word for someone preparing for baptism. Those already baptised are called candidates.
- The Rite of Election. On the first Sunday of Lent, catechumens from across the diocese gather at the cathedral, where the bishop formally accepts them for baptism at Easter.
- Lent. The final weeks of preparation, with prayers for the catechumens at Mass on several Sundays.
- The Easter Vigil. On the night before Easter Sunday, in a service that begins in darkness, you are baptised, confirmed and receive Holy Communion for the first time, all in one evening. It is the high point of the church’s year, and the whole parish is there.
- Afterwards. The group carries on meeting for a few weeks after Easter to reflect on what has happened, and then you are simply a Catholic, part of the parish like anyone else.
Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
If you have already been baptised
The Catholic Church recognises baptism carried out with water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, whichever church did it. If you were baptised or christened in the Church of England, a Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal or other mainstream church, you will not be baptised again. Instead you are “received into full communion”: you make a profession of faith, are confirmed and receive Holy Communion for the first time, usually after making your first confession. This can happen at the Easter Vigil with the others, or at another time of year, and the preparation is often shorter. Bring your baptism certificate if you have one. If you are not sure whether you were ever baptised, tell the priest, and the parish will help you find out.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
If you were baptised a Catholic as a baby
Then you already are one, however long it has been. You do not need RCIA to come back. Go to confession, start coming to Mass, and if you were never confirmed, ask about the parish’s preparation for adult confirmation. Many parishes run groups for people returning to the faith, and priests are used to this conversation and glad to have it.
Sponsors and godparents
Everyone preparing to become a Catholic has a sponsor: a practising, confirmed Catholic who comes to the sessions and the services with you and supports you afterwards. Someone being baptised has a godparent, who plays the same role. If you do not know any Catholics, say so. The parish will find someone.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
The usual pattern runs from September or October to Easter, so around six to nine months, though it can be shorter or longer depending on you and the parish. There is no rush and no exam. It costs nothing. You may want to buy a Bible and a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the parish will suggest editions.
What Catholics believe about becoming a Christian
Catholics believe that a person becomes a Christian through faith in Jesus Christ and through baptism, which joins them to Christ and to his Church. They understand the sacraments, baptism and Holy Communion above all, as the ordinary ways in which God gives his grace. And they believe that the Church Jesus founded on the apostles, with Peter at their head, continues today in the Catholic Church, led by the Pope as Peter’s successor. In the translation used on this site, Jesus’ words to Peter use the word “assembly” where most Bibles say “church”.
I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
A note from the author
I am a Catholic myself, so this is the route I know from the inside. Whichever church you join, the heart of it is the same: turning back to God and putting your trust in Jesus. The page on how to become a Christian explains that, and it comes first.
Useful links
- Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, news, teaching and a parish finder