When Do You Dismiss during Triduum?

During the Triduum, the question arises about when to dismiss the Elect and the catechumens. (If you are engaged in a year-round process, you will likely have both.) If parish leaders understand the liturgical role that the unbaptized have in worship, it will be clear that the Elect and the catechumens are dismissed before the priestly action of the liturgy begins.

Holy Thursday

In the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the first action restricted to the baptized priesthood is the prayer of the faithful. So the Elect and the catechumens would be dismissed before the general intercessions. They would ordinarily be present for and participate in the washing of the feet if your parish chooses to celebrate that option.

Good Friday

Likewise during the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, the first act exclusively performed by the baptized priesthood is the offering of the General Intercessions. So, just as on Sunday and at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the Elect and the catechumens would be kindly dismissed before this prayer.

Who leads them?

In many (all?) communities, it would be a hardship to ask a catechist to leave the worshiping assembly on these days to lead the Elect and catechumens in the dismissal reflection. And, in fact, there is no need to. The Elect will have been participating in dismissal reflections for a year or more by this point. One or more of them should have no difficulty leading the reflection sessions.

Easter

If you are practicing a year-round initiation process, you will have catechumens who will not be baptized at this year’s Easter Vigil. Should they participate in the Easter Vigil? Two pastoral difficulties present themselves in this case. The first is that the powerful symbols and ritual actions of the Vigil may have less impact the second (or third) time around, in the year the catechumens will be celebrating their own initiation. Wouldn’t it be more pastorally effective for them to experience the great Paschal fire, the Exsultet, the extensive readings and prayers of this night, and so on, for the first time on the night of their own baptism?

The second pastoral issue is who would lead them in their dismissal reflection? Unlike the Elect, the catechumens are unlikely to have a great deal of experience with this process, and it would be a great hardship to ask a catechist to be absent for the first time in which the neophytes participate in the Eucharist.

The best solution, perhaps, is to have the catechumens present at the Easter Sunday liturgy—along with the neophytes in their white robes—and to ask a catechist to lead the dismissal at that liturgy.

Triduum Dismissal
When do you dismiss?	We dismiss the Elect and the catechumens from the Mass of the Lord's Supper. We dismiss the Elect and the catechumens from the Celebration of the Lord's Passion. We dismiss the catechumens from the Easter Vigil. We dismiss the catechumens from the Easter Sunday liturgy. We do not dismiss anyone during the Triduum
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Is Your Dismissal Pastoral Enough?

The most pastoral thing we can do
for the
catechumens is to “kindly dismiss” them, before the prayer of the faithful begins....

I have a friend, a good friend, who also happens to be a priest. He is dead sent against dismissing the catechumens from the liturgy before the general intercessions. Whenever he presides at a liturgy with catechumens present, he will call them forward for dismissal after the intercessions. He thinks it is more pastoral for them to learn to pray with the worshiping community, particularly in this important prayer of the assembly.

What isn’t clear to my friend and isn’t clear to a lot of parish leaders is the hierarchical role of the various orders in the assembly. In a typical parish on Sunday, there are likely to be present three or four orders: the catechumenate, the faithful, the presbyterate, and sometimes the diaconate. Each of these orders has a distinct part to play in the liturgy. The various parts and their cooperative action are a metaphor for the parts of the Body of Christ. Just as an arm cannot do the work of a leg, those who are in the order of the faithful cannot do the parts assigned to the order of presbyters. Nor can catechumens do the priestly work of the faithful.

To offer the prayer of the faithful is a sacrificial act. Therefore, it is a role for the baptized priesthood. Those in the order of the catechumens do not yet share in this formal intercession for the needs of the church and the world. Likewise, they are not yet empowered to participate in the great sacrifice of praise that we offer in the Eucharist. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says, “The meaning of the [Eucharistic] Prayer is that the entire congregation of the faithful should join itself with Christ in confessing the great deeds of God and in the offering of sacrifice” (78).

Note the participation of the order of the faithful in the Eucharistic Prayer is not first of all about participation in Communion. Thus, baptized candidates seeking reception into the Catholic Church—as well as Catholics who may be restricted from sharing in Communion, and indeed any baptized person—are encouraged to participate in the offering of the sacrifice of the Mass. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1271-1273, 1651.)

In the liturgy, the role of the catechumens is to conform their hearts and minds more fully to Christ in preparation for their baptism “which will join them to God’s priestly people and empower them to participle in Christ’s new worship” (RCIA, 75.3). However well intentioned it might seem, it is not a pastoral act to prematurely anticipate that unity. The most pastoral thing we can do for the catechumens is to “kindly dismiss” them, before the prayer of the faithful begins, to do the work of conforming their hearts and minds to Christ. (See RCIA, 118.)