The RCIA is primarily intended for those who are unbaptized and with very little or no history with a church who seek a relationship with Jesus Christ in the sacraments of initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.

The RCIA is the inspiration and the structure of how a community ministers to someone who sets out on the path to adult initiation (and children of catechetical age) in the Catholic Church.

This is a process of discovery and self-reflection, in which you explore the meaning of Christ in your life, and how that works with the Catholic Faith.  So, it is not to be so much an educational process, but one of transformation.

There are four major periods in the initiation process, separated by various liturgical rituals, which express and celebrate what is occurring at each stage in the process.