Becoming Catholic

If you are new to the Catholic Faith, or would like to have a better understanding we invite you to call us at 319-363-8269 or by email at contactus@stmatthewcr.org to discuss faith enrichment opportunities that might be of interest to you.

The Process

  1. Register for and Complete RCIA. RCIA is a class that reviews that Catholic Faith and helps prepare you for the Sacraments.

    Adult Initiation Registration Form

    Children’s Initiation Registration Form (7 years or older)

  2. Choose a sponsor. A sponsor is a Catholic lay person who helps you on your path to becoming Catholic. They will stand by you while you receive your first Sacraments and will vow to stand by you and support you on your journey.

  3. Receive the Sacraments.

The Catholic Faith is the most wonderous thing. It is the most human of the religions. Involving, hope and pain. It embraces the sorrows of humans and tells us we are blessed because of those hardships.

There are 5 Precepts of the Catholic Church

  1. Attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation and rest form servile labor.

  2. Confess your sins at least once a year.

  3. Receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.

  4. Observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.

  5. Help to provide for the needs of the church.

The most powerful prayers of the Catholic Faith.

Glory be to the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be, a world without end. Amen


Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

  • “Faith is not a mere intellectual assent of the human person to specific truths about God; it is an act with which I entrust myself freely to a God who is Father and who loves me; it is adherence to a ‘You’ who gives me hope and trust.”

    Pope Benedict XVI

  • "You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That's how prayer works."

    Pope Francis

  • "Through our sharing in Jesus' appearing before the Father, we stand both as members of the worldwide community of the whole Church and also of the communion of saints. Yes, in a certain sense this is the liturgy of Heaven. "

    Pope Benedict XVI

  • "The Noblest power of man is reason. The greatest goal of reason is knowledge of God."

    St. Albert the Great

  • "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

    Matthew 17:20

  • "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

    St. Catherine of Siena