Baptism separate from Confirmation?

[otjm]

get the DRE out of the loop and go directly to the pastor, parents must do this, child should be baptized and confirmed at the same time, if his condition is such that he is not expected to live long, it should be done immediately. No preparation is necessary as for the purposes of the sacraments of initiation he is an infant due to his developmental condition.

Actually Annie, what you are suggesting is what the DRE is suggesting; it is the parent who wants them separated.

 

[puzzleannie]

Actually Annie, what you are suggesting is what the DRE is suggesting; it is the parent who wants them separated.

it sounds as if the DRE expects the child to participate in RCIA, but in any case the parents must meet with the priest because he, not the DRE or the parents, makes this decision, and in this child’s case, both sacraments should be confered together. My bet is the parents misunderstood what they were told, and the person reporting the conversation did not get the gist of what was actually advised.

 

[otjm]

it sounds as if the DRE expects the child to participate in RCIA, but in any case the parents must meet with the priest because he, not the DRE or the parents, makes this decision, and in this child’s case, both sacraments should be confered together. My bet is the parents misunderstood what they were told, and the person reporting the conversation did not get the gist of what was actually advised.

Now that would be a shock, wouldn’t it?

I was not disagreeing with your comments. There are good DREs, and then there are DRes, and then there are not so good DREs. On occasion some of the parties forget who’s in charge. You can take your pick as to which ones forget…

 

[Phemie]

it sounds as if the DRE expects the child to participate in RCIA, but in any case the parents must meet with the priest because he, not the DRE or the parents, makes this decision, and in this child’s case, both sacraments should be confered together. My bet is the parents misunderstood what they were told, and the person reporting the conversation did not get the gist of what was actually advised.

But the OP says “She doesn’t think he is ready to be confirmed, because he does not understand the faith.” It seems that mom requires catechesis on Confirmation. She needs to understand that her mentally challenged son doesn’t need to ‘understand the faith’ to be confirmed and receive the graces that come with that sacrament.

 

[puzzleannie]

Now that would be a shock, wouldn’t it?

I was not disagreeing with your comments. There are good DREs, and then there are DRes, and then there are not so good DREs. On occasion some of the parties forget who’s in charge. You can take your pick as to which ones forget…

what happens more often is the parent walks into my office or calls on the phone and asks: my son is 16 and is not baptized what do I have to do? So we tell them the whole spiel on RCIA etc. Then only much later when they finally come in for an interview do we find out the rest of the story. So we did not give complete or accurate information for their particular situation because we are not Padre Pio and we can’t read minds and hearts.

 

[puzzleannie]

But the OP says “She doesn’t think he is ready to be confirmed, because he does not understand the faith.” It seems that mom requires catechesis on Confirmation. She needs to understand that her mentally challenged son doesn’t need to ‘understand the faith’ to be confirmed and receive the graces that come with that sacrament.

and the mom just got done with RCIA, because she was told she had to have an understanding of the faith before she could receive Confirmation and the other sacraments. She was not given the whole story because whoever she talked to about this situation did not know all the facts about her child.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

But the OP says “She doesn’t think he is ready to be confirmed, because he does not understand the faith.” It seems that mom requires catechesis on Confirmation. She needs to understand that her mentally challenged son doesn’t need to ‘understand the faith’ to be confirmed and receive the graces that come with that sacrament.

He in this case does not need to “understand” as long as he is not personally rejecting the faith. Which he is not. He can validly receive the Sarament of Confirmation at any time, he does not need to “graduate” from any program to do so.