A Fee for Confirmation Program for Teens? Is this common?

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Am so excited to sign my teen son up for the Confirmation program at my large parish beginning this summer, but come to find out there’s a $300.00 fee. WOW. Is this common? We live in a huge city where there’s probably 100 teens in the program, but please tell me is this normal, or is my parish money hungry? This is the same place I took confirmation classes, just confirmed this past Easter, there was no fee involved. What is this for???

I’ve tried the parishes closer by—but they’re all “fairly dead”–maybe 5 youth, while mine is very active (tons of youth from every city) even though the drive is a bit farther–well 20-25 minutes instead of 10.

Would appreciate any thoughts of yours.
 
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sparkle:
Am so excited to sign my teen son up for the Confirmation program at my large parish beginning this summer, but come to find out there’s a $300.00 fee. WOW. Is this common? We live in a huge city where there’s probably 100 teens in the program, but please tell me is this normal, or is my parish money hungry? This is the same place I took confirmation classes, just confirmed this past Easter, there was no fee involved. What is this for???

I’ve tried the parishes closer by—but they’re all “fairly dead”–maybe 5 youth, while mine is very active (tons of youth from every city) even though the drive is a bit farther–well 20-25 minutes instead of 10.

Would appreciate any thoughts of yours.
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That is a way to high a fee. I don’t know of any local parish in thius Archdiocese that charges that much. Call your diocesan Catechetical Office and ask the director.
 
Wow I can’t imagine that high a fee! Definitly ask some questions. Maybe use the adult program if you can’t afford the exhorbitant teen fee?
 
That better be one whompin’ GREAT program! Actually, if you did the math, it might actually come out to about $300 per student to produce a really good program – but it should be covered by the parish budget, except for extras like field trips.

You have probably read my rants about why Catholics need to up the average per family giving from less than one percent to maybe 5%. THIS is why!
 
Ours is around $100, which barely covers the cost of the retreat. —KCT
 
I cannot imagine a Confirmation program costing $300. The only thing that would jack the price up that much is the weekend retreat which is a requirement in many dioceses. It is a problem here because there are very few retreat facilities with overnight accommodations, and the most popular is about $80 a night, add food and the cost of retreat activities to that and I can see that cost for a 3 day/2 night retreat. Most parishes have overnights where kids sleep on the floor in the parish hall, so the cost is much less.

The candidate materials for most Confirmation programs are $12-25 per student, plus sponsor and parent packets, journals and other resources that could bring the price up to $40-50 per candidate. Our fee is included in the CCD fee, $25 per student, max $55 per family, waived in cases of need or for substantial volunteer service. The fees cover less than half the cost of textbooks and supplies for our program, the parish covers DRE and secretary salaries and overhead.
 
For $300, the confirmation offered at this parish must be a lot better product than is offered at most parishes.

Do they offer a money back guarantee? For example, if confirmation doesn’t turn the confirmed person into a soldier of Jesus Christ as promised, do the parents get a refund?

I know of an example where a girl was confirmed and then went to shack up with her boyfriend. In this case, confirmation did just the opposite of what the Catholic Church said it would do. Would a parish that charges $300 for confirmation give a double your money back guarantee. Or, would a lawsuit be in order?

I think confirmation can shown to be defective, even produce the opposite effect in most cases. The clearest evidence are the large number of people who have received confirmation and then say that it is okay to practice birth control, engage in premarital sex, and to murder children

Anyone who is honest would not even offer such a defective and faulty product, much less charge $300 for it. A $300 charge for confirmation is nothing but a big scam.
 
I think it would be perfectly OK to ask why it’s so much. It’s your money; you have every right to know how it’s being used. —KCT
 
by the way, asking parents for a fee to cover reasonable expenses of a religious education program, including sacramental preparation IS NOT simony. Simony is selling a blessing or sacrament. Please don’t bandy words about. In my estimation, since it is the fundamental duty of the parish to assist the parents in their duty to educate their children in the faith, the parish should cover all expenses, but practically speaking, at least where I live, weekly collections barely cover operating expenses and salaries.
 
My parish charges an $25 for First Communion and Confirmation on top of $60 per child for PSR.

Our weekly collection needs to be $16,500 to break even. We have shortfalls nearly every week. Perhaps if people were more generous, more programs could be fully funded.
 
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sparkle:
Am so excited to sign my teen son up for the Confirmation program at my large parish beginning this summer, but come to find out there’s a $300.00 fee. WOW. Is this common? We live in a huge city where there’s probably 100 teens in the program, but please tell me is this normal, or is my parish money hungry? This is the same place I took confirmation classes, just confirmed this past Easter, there was no fee involved. What is this for???

I’ve tried the parishes closer by—but they’re all “fairly dead”–maybe 5 youth, while mine is very active (tons of youth from every city) even though the drive is a bit farther–well 20-25 minutes instead of 10.

Would appreciate any thoughts of yours.
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Through my parish, if my kids were not in a Catholic HS, they would be required to take CCD for their confirmation preparation, which is about $25 to $50 (for CCD course material costs).

Since they I pay to send them to Catholic HS, they don’t need CCD to prepare for confirmation, but they do have to meet once a month for about a year (no costs for the monthly meeting, big bucks for Catholic HS ).

There’s no cost for any Sacrament preparation at my parish, excepting material cost for CCD. We typically receive about $25K per week in collections (about 2,500 families registered).
 
If you can afford it, I would suggest paying it BUT beforehand do not be shy in asking why there is a charge.
And once if you decide to pay it ask questions about what you are paying for. Do they garentee the teachers will teach things faithful to the Magesterium, will they get an understanding of Catholic Doctrine or will they just sit around only talking about feelings and only doing projects that don’t have much to do with Catholic teachings. I mention this because the most memorable moments in my Confirmation class was once we got visited by someone from St. Vincent society (who only talked about what they do and not anything about St. Vincent and God) and once we all put one of our shoes all in a pile, I think it was a lesson about community but there wasn’t any talk about Christ that day. I think my parents had to pay for both by CCD classes, VBS classes and CYO classes and I can tell you that things would have gone tons better for my formation if good caring parents like you had all asked questions like these.
 
My 9th grader is going through the Confirmation program at our church this year. The church charges $75.00 for the cost of the books…the sacrament itself is FREE.
 
$300.00 doesn’t sound so bad, for a hand tooled leather bound, with gold leaf letering and gilted pages, confirmation text, hand signed by St. Peter.:bigyikes:
 
:banghead:
I
:banghead:
don’t
:banghead:
understand
:banghead:
why
:banghead:
books and materials purchased for sacraments such as first communion, reconcilliation and confirmation
:banghead:
aren’t reused.
:banghead:
Offer the option to buy if someone wants to keep a book.
There doesn’t need to be a single expense for anyone anywhere for the sacraments.
 
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contemplative:
I don’t understand why
books and materials purchased for sacraments such as first communion, reconcilliation and confirmation
aren’t reused.

Offer the option to buy if someone wants to keep a book.
There doesn’t need to be a single expense for anyone anywhere for the sacraments.
Click to expand...
we reuse the textbooks (there is always an option to buy, they are $35 hardcover) but give them:
bible - $7
catechism - $10
prayerbook - $4
rosary ($1)
handouts from Confirmation for Teens ($8 per set)
journal - $1
3 ring binder for handouts and service record and class note-taking ($1)
numerous other handouts, pamphlets on various topics during the program, probably $5 a person during the program

we don’t want any teen to leave here without a bible, catechism and rosary, and know how to use them

most first communion and reconciliation books are workbooks, meant to be written in, they are also intended as keepsakes.

as I said, we waive the fee upon request for cases of need, without asking any proof or reasons. no one is turned away because they can’t afford the fees. the parish picks up the cost, but simply cannot pay for all (although I think they should) this is the poorest diocese in the country and tithing is unknown here.
 
I hear and agree with what everone is saying about this. But the point I always remember is the fact that in our parish, only **2 % **is allocated for religious education. Maybe we have our priorities in the wrong place. After all, the children are the Church of tomorrow. If our children are poorly catechized and they end up leaving the church, then where will the fault be? Maybe its not about how much money a parish brings in but how it is used.
 
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puzzleannie:
we reuse the textbooks (there is always an option to buy, they are $35 hardcover) but give them: Right On!
bible - $7 Bible could be reused as well. I am betting that the people to be confirmed either already have a Bible in their home and/or will recieve one as a gift from sponsor. There is no harm in making this suggestion to sponsors on their information sheet. Have sponsors kindly contact you if they plan on doing this.
catechism - $10 Right On!
prayerbook - $4 Superfluous cost when considering all the other spiritually satiisfying reading material already offered
rosary ($1) Only if they need one…
handouts from Confirmation for Teens ($8 per set) I can’t imagine even more reading/writing material on top of the Bible, Catechism and textbook. Sounds like overkill.
journal - $1
3 ring binder for handouts and service record and class note-taking ($1) Yes Sir!
numerous other handouts, pamphlets on various topics during the program, probably $5 a person during the program and even more handouts…get me outa here!

we don’t want any teen to leave here without a bible, catechism and rosary, and know how to use them

most first communion and reconciliation books are workbooks, meant to be written in, they are also intended as keepsakes.

as I said, we waive the fee upon request for cases of need, without asking any proof or reasons. no one is turned away because they can’t afford the fees. the parish picks up the cost, but simply cannot pay for all (although I think they should) this is the poorest diocese in the country and tithing is unknown here.
This is good! There are so many people who simply can’t afford the expense.
I did shave off approximately $25 off confirmation expenses.
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Hmmmmm…300.00 to learn about your faith? I don’t think kids should have to pay anything to do confirmation. I didn’t pay a penny, and we had an awesome program with 2 retreats.
 
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