Realizing that in most parishes, the process is ongoing and already well planned, parishes were encouraged to at least begin distinguishing candidates from catechumens ritually, that is un-combining some of the combined rites. What became apparent from these gatherings is that much more conversation was needed. There seemed to be a prevailing notion that an unbaptized person seeking initiation into the Roman Catholic Church and baptized Catholics seeking Confirmation should be ministered to in the same way especially if they are uncatechized. What surfaced at those meetings of the RCIA parish coordinators is a misguided concept that an unbaptized adult and a baptized Christian could be of the same status simply because both are uncatechized . That because a person has had no experience of the Church but a moment in infancy, nothing has happened, that nothing has changed, that the sacrament didn t take effect.
Sacraments act ex opere operato by the very fact of the action being performed.
6 Catechumenal catechesis introduces the catechumen to the Christian identity, the new creation, and sets the catechumen on a journey to the waters of baptism, on a course forming patterns of life that are Christ's. The catechesis of the baptized adult seeking confirmation is based on the baptism they have already received. One must be baptized to receive confirmation. Eucharist have received the sacrament of faith, baptism. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacrament also depends on the disposition of the one who receives them.