Age of confirmation

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etmom

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What is the age of confirmation in your diocese? Ours just announced that they are moving it to 11th grade. When we moved here, they were doing restored order, and confirming at the time of First Communion. Then they moved it back, and more recently, suspended it entirely, pending a final decision. The reasoning is to allow for longer religious education period. I know a huge issue was parents leaving religious education entirely after first communion/confirmation when it was following restored order. Providing NO religious education after the age of 7 or 8 for their children.

I was really praying that they would move it back to first communion age again. I have had two children be confirmed in 9th grade. My other children are younger, and have not yet been confirmed. I feel that lifelong religious education is vitally important for all, but don’t feel that confirmation should be used as a tool to achieve this. Since confirmation is a spiritual grace, a strengthening of baptism, is it wrong to want my child to receive this prior to adulthood? Should all children be denied this sacrament because some parents did the wrong thing?

Is this something that is happening all over?
 
etmom said:
What is the age of confirmation in your diocese? Ours just announced that they are moving it to 11th grade. When we moved here, they were doing restored order, and confirming at the time of First Communion. Then they moved it back, and more recently, suspended it entirely, pending a final decision. The reasoning is to allow for longer religious education period. I know a huge issue was parents leaving religious education entirely after first communion/confirmation when it was following restored order. Providing NO religious education after the age of 7 or 8 for their children.

I was really praying that they would move it back to first communion age again. I have had two children be confirmed in 9th grade. My other children are younger, and have not yet been confirmed. I feel that lifelong religious education is vitally important for all, but don’t feel that confirmation should be used as a tool to achieve this. Since confirmation is a spiritual grace, a strengthening of baptism, is it wrong to want my child to receive this prior to adulthood? Should all children be denied this sacrament because some parents did the wrong thing?

Is this something that is happening all over?
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8th grade here. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind our diocese moving confirmation to 11th grade. I think it would actually help in their faith formation if they were confirmed at that age instead of at age 13/14.
 
etmom said:
I feel that lifelong religious education is vitally important for all, but don’t feel that confirmation should be used as a tool to achieve this.
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Why not? Seems perfectly sound to me. And it’s not like 16-year olds are anywhere near adulthood, especially in this day and age.
 
Chatter163 said:
Why not? Seems perfectly sound to me. And it’s not like 16-year olds are anywhere near adulthood, especially in this day and age.
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The end of 11th grade is 17 or even 18 for many. I believed that confirmation was a grace that was not dependent on the amount of catechisis that one recieved or one’s age. Am I wrong? It seems to me that having the spiritual strengthening of one’s baptism and the gifts of the holy spirit would be helpful and desirable in navigating adolescence.

Don’t get me wrong, I think children should be required to stay in religious education through high school. I didn’t believe that the Sacrament of Confirmation required it, though.
 
Brendan said:
What does Confirmation have to do with ‘adulthood’?
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Because they want the youngsters to be adults educated from a catechetical point of view and thus capable to perform social/evangelical works in order to prove worthy of reception of the Gift of the Holy Spirit that will give them the graces to go out and evangelize people. It looks like you must be able to go and evangelize if you want to receive the gift of being able to evangelize.:D:(:D:(😃
 
I am completely aware of the history of when sacraments were received. And I would opine that the “particular reasons” to which you referred still apply to confirmation. I would be happy to see it in middle school, but am OK with its being in high school, should be bishop feel it is necessary.

As for the eagerness to receive sacramental graces as soon as possible, that is fine, but in the big picture of life, whether one is confirmed at 13 or 17, is not a huge difference. And be careful of the desire to receive grace too early, lest one make the argument that people should marry at a young age, or be ordained young, for the same reason.
 
Chatter163 said:
…As for the eagerness to receive sacramental graces as soon as possible, that is fine, but in the big picture of life, whether one is confirmed at 13 or 17, is not a huge difference…
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Do you know at what age people start to distance themselves from God and the Church? Hint: When their parent’s God and Church are not becoming their God and Church. Can they have a metanoia without the graces of God? Hint: No!
 
I actually like the way the Eastern rite Church does it, at Baptism. They do Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist. None of this precludes or replaces the need for on-going study of the faith. That’s a lifelong process anyway. Anyone who thinks they know it all needs to understand that even the Pope has his personal theologian to help him along.
 
The one disadvantage of putting it off till as late as they can, is that these young people do not get the graces from the sacrament that they may need in order to carry out, and remain Catholic. It has been published that entering high school, the average CCD class looses 30% of their pupils each year. So now, you not only have those who may need this sacrament being delayed, you have those who, for whatever reason, do not receive the sacrament at all. You also have those who have remained faithful witnessing every Easter whole families coming into the Church fully, including children. There are many reasons to lower the age. Each Bishop gets to decide for his diocese but grade 11 puts them above what has been approved for the U.S. “about 16”. Most are 18 and above. I witnessed a young girl having to come back from college, as she graduated a year early, just to be confirmed. It is sad that he is returning to an older age as physical age has little to do with it. I have witnessed the Bishops being lead by the theology promoted in some texts, them deciding to be Catholic or to remain Catholic which has nothing to do with the sacrament. You have every right to express your concerns to your priest and Bishop. The Pope recently praised a Bishop who was returning to traditional order - Baptism, Reconciliation, Confirmation and 1st Hold Communion. That should speak loudly.
 
Chatter163 said:
IAnd be careful of the desire to receive grace too early, lest one make the argument that people should marry at a young age, or be ordained young, for the same reason.
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The two that you mentioned are the two Sacraments of Service. To serve, you require the maturity to recognize a need in others and to commit your life to serve others.

Confirmation is a Sacrament of Initiation. When is ‘too early’ to be fully initiated into the Church?

Look at the case of a family who is converting to the Church, in addition to the parents, Canon Law requires that all children above the age of Reason are to be Confirmed.
 
it varies from parish to parish here. I was twelve (6th grade), but my parish just moved Confirmation to 8th grade, so my brother will have to wait until he’s 14. His best friend, who goes to a different parish, (he attends a private Catholic school) was confirmed last week at the age of 11 (5th grade). I believe Archbishop Chaput wants to standardize it at 8th grade across the archdiocese though.
 
Hopey said:
The one disadvantage of putting it off till as late as they can, is that these young people do not get the graces from the sacrament that they may need in order to carry out, and remain Catholic. It has been published that entering high school, the average CCD class looses 30% of their pupils each year. So now, you not only have those who may need this sacrament being delayed, you have those who, for whatever reason, do not receive the sacrament at all. You also have those who have remained faithful witnessing every Easter whole families coming into the Church fully, including children. There are many reasons to lower the age. Each Bishop gets to decide for his diocese but grade 11 puts them above what has been approved for the U.S. “about 16”. Most are 18 and above. I witnessed a young girl having to come back from college, as she graduated a year early, just to be confirmed. It is sad that he is returning to an older age as physical age has little to do with it. I have witnessed the Bishops being lead by the theology promoted in some texts, them deciding to be Catholic or to remain Catholic which has nothing to do with the sacrament. You have every right to express your concerns to your priest and Bishop. The Pope recently praised a Bishop who was returning to traditional order - Baptism, Reconciliation, Confirmation and 1st Hold Communion. That should speak loudly.
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One can argue though that the reason CCD classes are losing that 30% each year is because many parents do not force their children to continue beyond the 8th grade, after they have been confirmed.

And as far as the girl having to return from college “just to be confirmed”, that is a lousy way to look at our youth receiving their sacraments. We should be overjoyed when any of us receive a sacrament, regardless of age or the situation. You make it sound like the Church shouldn’t have inconvienced her schedule.
 
Both my sister and I were confirmed around age 16/17 - all of our respective classmates ranged in age from 16 to 18. Then our catechism/religious education class days ended after that. Our mother and many of her generation were confirmed no later than age 10/11 (Pre Vatican II) but they still continued to go to Catholic school where they got religious education as part of their school days until they moved with their family & had to go to public school around age 12/13.

It would be nice to see it restored where youngsters get both Confirmation and First Eucharist the same day. Some churches do it that, others make them wait a few years between First Eucharist and Confirmation. Then some parents decide that kids don’t need more religious education and/or Mass attendance after that (or even worse in my opinion allowing kids to make those choices).

A parish in another diocese that offers the Extraordinary Form only will confirm those in the 8th grade. They have to demonstrate a certain amount of knowledge and have an interview with the priest to determine readiness for reception of Confirmation. Some of what that parish requires as listed below, that is something I’d like to see more of as some kids don’t even know the basics like:

*Memory prayers like Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary
*The names of 7 Sacraments and what each do
*The 2 main parts of the Mass
*Types of sin
*How and when to go to Confession
*The 2 main parts of the Bible (Old and New Testament)
 
Our age for Confirmation here is usually 12th grade as the preparation begins, earliest, in Junior year of high school. The prep is usually 2 years.
 
PatriceA said:
One can argue though that the reason CCD classes are losing that 30% each year is because many parents do not force their children to continue beyond the 8th grade, after they have been confirmed.

And as far as the girl having to return from college “just to be confirmed”, that is a lousy way to look at our youth receiving their sacraments. We should be overjoyed when any of us receive a sacrament, regardless of age or the situation. You make it sound like the Church shouldn’t have inconvienced her schedule.
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I see it more of it, not inconveniencing , but a failure to recognize what the youth are doing and going thru. Many are in separated families, bouncing here/there. Some are working to afford cars/college tuition as they are finally old enough to hold jobs. I hold the sacraments/preparation above all other things but I also know that some have failed in realizing what the youth are doing. I am glad the young girl returned. Exceptions can be made and policies, as this is a POLICY, can be changed.
 
Scoobyshme said:
There’s a good article on this at the following link:

wdtprs.com/blog/2012/03/american-bishop-receives-kudos-from-the-pope-for-reordering-sacraments/
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The Bishop of Fargo said the changes have also distanced the Sacrament of Confirmation from “some false theologies that see it as being a sacrament of maturity or as a sacrament for ‘me choosing God.’” [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

Instead, young people in Fargo now have “the fullness of the spirit and the completion of the gifts of the spirit” to assist them in “living their lives within the world,” especially “in the trials they face in junior high and high school.”

Exactly!! Maybe we need to move to Fargo…I am in total agreement with this, and while I respect our Bishop immensely, I’m very, very dissapointed by the move to 11th grade.
 
Hopey said:
I see it more of it, not inconveniencing , but a failure to recognize what the youth are doing and going thru. Many are in separated families, bouncing here/there. Some are working to afford cars/college tuition as they are finally old enough to hold jobs. I hold the sacraments/preparation above all other things but I also know that some have failed in realizing what the youth are doing. I am glad the young girl returned. Exceptions can be made and policies, as this is a POLICY, can be changed.
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I fail to see your arguement you are making. Moving confirmation to an older age and providing more formal faith formation as a result can be the perfect opportunity to recognize what our youth is facing. And regardless of the age of confirmation, you’re always going to have separated families and kids being bounced around and you’re going to have people in the teaching role that do not see the hardships of being young. And your arguement fails to address the 30% statistic that you used, if you move the age of confirmation to an earlier age, that problem still exists and we can still be left with no way of addressing it. Those kids and all their problems would still not be recognized.
 
I’m a huge fan of putting confirmation back before First Communion. Using confirmation as a carrot to keep kids in religious ed longer just doesn’t work. What happens if most of the kids just disappear for the in between years and come back for confirmation. Then for confirmation classes you have a small group of kids who are pretty educated in their faith and then you have a larger group of kids who have forgotten pretty much everything they have learned. Not exactly an easy situation for catechists.

It seems like a much better idea to have the kids receive the graces of the sacrament before they become preteens/teenagers and have to deal with all the stresses of the world. It would also help combat the idea the confirmation is when a child chooses the faith for them self (which is totally inaccurate).
 
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