Aftermath of restoring Confirmation order

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My own preference is that people should have at least 2 years of college, or 2 years work experience or military before being confirmed. We did in fact receive the Holy Spirit in baptism, but confirmation should be a totally voluntary decision on the person’s part, by someone who has some idea of the challenges, as to why confirmation is valuable.
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What makes you say so?
 
Magdalene said:
If parents won’t bring their kids to classes unless they perceive that they “get something”, then that is a problem that needs to be fixed. I don’t know if the best answer is to just continue having confirmation later, hoping those kids who haven’t been to a religious ed class since 2nd grade will show up.
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I think pastors and DREs have been trying to fix it for decades, I just think they’re going about it backwards. Locally, it was a problem that people would just register for religious education in sacrament years. That was recognized as a problem, so the sacraments were changed to 2-year prep or the kids were required to be in formation for one or two years prior to the sacrament year.
Magdalene said:
I think one way to encourage parents to bring their children to religious formation would be to offer more formation for parents. I think part of why it worked so well in my Protestant Church growing up was because there was something for everyone. If the kids were meeting, so were the teens, and the adults.
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I think this is critical! And the approach should not be “mandatory sessions for parents”, in addition to their children’s classes, so that parents can learn along with their kids. Presumably, the parents know the basics and have a hunger for more. We need to shift to a culture of lifelong formation. We need Bible studies and dynamic speakers and Catechism classes for the entire parish, not just classes for those with kids in religious education.
Magdalene said:
And I think we’re all in agreement here about the importance of religious formation! We’re not saying there should be less classes, really, we’re saying there should be more. We just don’t think having confirmation later is what will help them stay. It might be the sacramental prep mentality that makes all of the other years seem unimportant to both kids and parents.

And I agree… I’m so thankful for all of the people who work so hard on religious formation!! I think they do an amazing job. This is not a problem one person can fix, it’s a culture shift. A lot of it lies with the parents, and with more people in the parish stepping up to help out.
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Yes!

I think it is tragic that so many children receive so little formation at home and I understand the temptation to pile on more and more requirements for sacraments. The kids might not get anything else, so we need to get it all in while we can. I’ve taught those kids in classes, the ones who seem to have never heard a “Hail Mary” in 5th grade, and I know that they need more than we can give them in an hour a week. I don’t think that culture change is easy, but I think it is necessary. I don’t think anybody really believes the carrot approach is best, they just think it is the only way.
 
My Diocesean policy is to have 1st Eucharist in 2nd grad (7/8 yrs old) and Confirmation in 8th grade (13/14 yrs old). In my parish (and Diocese), we are struggling with RCIA for children. We have a rather large Hispanic population with 2 parishes dedicated to the Spanish language. My parish has some of the ‘overflow’.

What I’ve come to know is that there are several Central and South American countries that have the sacrament of Confirmation prior to 1st Eucharist. Many of the diocese in those countries never implemented the ‘new’ order as per St Pius X in 1910. When the family moves northward to the US, they encounter the Baptism/1st Eucharist/Confirmation order. This creates a rather large contingent of children to be received at Easter Vigil. At my parish, we had 5 adults and over 20 children. Only one of the children was baptized, the rest received Confirmation and 1st Eucharist. Many of these children were between the ages of 10 and 14. For the past 4 years, we’ve had at least 25 children come through RCIA each year due to missing the sacrament of 1st Eucharist. I’m not sure how many were in the latino parishes but I’m sure it was rather large as well. The sad part is that we may never see those families again at our parish - even though we have a Spanish Mass.

I teach 5th grade PREP at my parish and unless they have a sibling in a sacramental prep class, I have a rather small group of kids. Right now, I only have 5 children. Of those 5, only 2 are there without a sibling in a sacramental class and one of those 2 children is there because the mom has the kindergarten PREP class! This means only 1 child has a parent that is truly interested to catechize their child for the sake of learning. The parents also have been attending the bible study while their child is in class ! Basically, only 1 family of 5 is truly interested in learning more about their faith.

I must also state the this is the last year for ‘single-year’ sacramental prep. Both 1st Communion and Confirmation will require 2 years per our pastor.
 
I_trust said:
I have taught religion at my parish for decades.

I just finished teaching Confirmation classes for this year for 15-16 year-olds.

I find the argument that delaying Confirmation until high school so as to keep kids in religious education class less than compelling. These kids are dealing with pressure to conform to our society’s immoral stands on sexuality, porn, abortion, divorce, abortion etc. before they even reach high school.

I believe they would greatly benefit by receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit BEFORE having to deal with these pressures.

This is a Sacrament meant to impart grace from God to live a Christian life.

Confirmation is not a carrot to wave in front of the parents to keep their kids in religion class.
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20 Years teaching for me and I agree with this 100%. The kids need the grace earlier. I believe in continuing class, but give them the gift of the sacrament earlier! And I do think that informed parents will still send their kids to classes after Confirmation IF they understand why. You cannot EARN Confirmation. It is a free GIFT from God. I think many people have forgotten that.
 
Titivillus said:
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commenter:
My own preference is that people should have at least 2 years of college, or 2 years work experience or military before being confirmed. We did in fact receive the Holy Spirit in baptism, but confirmation should be a totally voluntary decision on the person’s part, by someone who has some idea of the challenges, as to why confirmation is valuable.
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What makes you say so?
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In my area, Catholics are receiving the sacrament of matrimony, on average, a few years later than Catholics used to. Not the same thing, but sort of reflecting larger changes among most people in the US at least.

As far as “totally voluntary, when you are ready”, many young Catholics are attracted to evangelical or non denominational churches where people “make a personal decision” for their life. I certainly do not approve getting re baptized, or leaving the Catholic Church; but clearly there is a need being met here. It seems the sacrament of confirmation would better meet that need in our own Catholic Church. (The ones I know do not put much confidence in that, as it was not really their choice at the time).
 
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It’s also not a magic pill. Babies who are Confirmed and small children who are confirmed do not magically avoid alcohol, drugs, or the wrong crowd That’s where parents come in.
We find that the kids who hang around Church tend to catechize tier parents around the dinner table, I’ve had more than a few parents enter the church based on the lessons the teens repeated at home.
The only people that have an impact on parents, are their teens.
i also find the notion that we in education are dangling a carrot very offensive. People assume that no one with a degree in Catholic Theology has a clue what a sacrament is.
Teens deserve the truth, And if their parents are not going to impart it, the CHURCH should.
 
Nobody said it was a magic pill. And nobody said the Church shouldn’t be imparting that knowledge, in fact we said they should be! It’s just that when to receive the sacrament is not a one size fits all answer, it seems.

So if keeping it where it is works best for your area, that’s great! I think it will still be interesting to see how it plays out in places where they have already changed it. I think in some places it could help change the culture and make religious formation classes every year, not just sacramental prep years, more of a priority. If that’s what they want to do, why discourage them from trying?

Sorry if you’re offended by the carrot analogy. I don’t think it was meant to offend, but it makes a good point. I work in religious formation at my parish too, I’m not knocking anyone who does. We’re all just doing our best to help teach young people about their faith! But even you yourself said parents don’t want to enroll their kids in classes unless they perceive they get something. So whether intentionally or unintentionally, that’s what’s happening. But if that’s the only way to get kids to come back, I can understand not wanting to move it earlier. I’m just not convinced that it’s the only way in every parish.
 
Yes, but people IMPLY that we are denying a child something they can’t do without for a couple of years.
Do people realize how many adults have NEVER been confirmed?

The Holy Spirit infuses us at Baptism, and through the other Sacraments as well. There is not a huge benefit to Confirming someone who has no clue what is happening, and who is likely not going to cooperate with that grace to begin with. Little kids don’t drive.
It’s that PARENTS that need the Holy Spirit at work in their lives…so they can EQUIP their children.

Every place I know of has religious for all 12 school years plus some pre-k programs. What makes you think we only offer religious formation classes in “prep” years???
 
You’re right, it’s not a bad thing to wait until 8th grade! I wasn’t confirmed until I was in my 20s. 🙂

I didn’t say that religious ed wasn’t offered in other years, but I think that it is often stressed as more important than the other years. Which, I guess it is. But every year of religious formation should be stressed as important! So many kids only go for those two years, and it’s sad. Adults should also be going to more formation, but at least in my parish, there aren’t a ton of options.
 
Stressed by the PARENTS.
Not the pastor or the DRE dear.

That’s why parishes are moving to Family Catechesis.
 
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It is really bad when the 5-year-old granddaughter asks her granny: “But Granny, what is the lady doing on the airplane!?”
 
A lot of opinions here I agree with, some are way off base but I still would like some anecdotal effects of the change for those that have gone through the shift in there diocese.
 
I would love to move to Family Catechesis at my parish. Confirmation is the completion of Baptism - not a vocational choice.
 
??? What are you alluding to?
Unhappy with your confirmation program?
 
Our parish is moving Conformation back down to 8th grade from 10th grade. We were having less children continue through high school to receive the sacrament. They are hoping to have better retention this way. I think the particular problem in our parish is the cost of religious formation. It was $275 for my daughter to take the religious formation classes. I do not have one making a sacrament this year so I purchased the religious education books from Seton homeschool for each of my children’s grade levels and the books were $15 each. I do them at home with the children.
The other issue I have found that seems to cause resentment, is that the parents of the public school children are required to attend special education classes every month. The parents of the parochial students have no such requirement. There are also separate ceremonies for the pubic school and parochial children. It leaves the parish quite divided and makes the public school families feel “less than”. I don’t feel this is good for parish unity. I have seen families leave the Church over it.
 
What could possibly cost $275 to run RE? Does the parish not support program at all?

I am the director of youth ministry in my parish. I’m debating whether or not to raise our fee from $40 to $55. That is for confirmation, our youth group fee is $15.
 
Charbel said:
The other issue I have found that seems to cause resentment, is that the parents of the public school children are required to attend special education classes every month. The parents of the parochial students have no such requirement. There are also separate ceremonies for the pubic school and parochial children. It leaves the parish quite divided and makes the public school families feel “less than”. I don’t feel this is good for parish unity. I have seen families leave the Church over it.
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That’s sad. I’m sorry to hear that. :cry:
 
I don’t know if this is the case here but some parishes pay catechists
 
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