OCIA, start to finish
The OCIA program tracks each person's path, stage, sponsors, and the rite dates through the Easter Vigil.
Catechumen or candidate
A catechumen has never been baptized and will receive Baptism, Confirmation, and First Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. A candidate is already validly baptized in another Christian community and will be received into full communion — they are never baptized again. The path is set by staff, once, deliberately; changing it later is an audited act.
The pipeline
The OCIA tab shows everyone by stage. Advance people as they move:
- Inquiry — the first conversations.
- Catechumenate — formation proper.
- Purification — Lent, the Rite of Election, the Scrutinies.
- Mystagogy — after the sacraments; the Vigil does not end the year, because mystagogy continues.
Sponsors and rites
Each person's sponsors can be picked from the directory or typed free-text. The eligibility confirmed checkbox is a human attestation (canon 874: a practicing, confirmed Catholic, 16 or older, not the parent) — an unattested sponsor draws a gentle warning at record time, never a block. Enter the rite dates once (Acceptance, Election, the Scrutinies, the Vigil); the Rite of Election list prints the catechumens for the cathedral.
At the Vigil, the Record button proposes the right entries for each path automatically — a catechumen's baptism, a candidate's reception — and a human confirms each against the bound register.
Questions? [support@vianney.church](mailto:support@vianney.church)