Can my Priest confirm me outside of Easter Vigil?

[Jshy]

I’m a adult getting baptized and confirmed next week. But the priest will be the one doing my confirmation . He said he will just permission from the bishop , but I thought that the Bishop has to be the one who does it and if he can’t then he sends another bishop to do it and only under necassary circumstances then can he have a priest do it If he can’t get another bishop ? I know priests can confirm while they baptize in easter Vigil , but we aren’t talking about easter vigil here …just a regular Sunday of and event … By canon law wouldnt a bishop Have to come ?

 

[Vico]

I’m a adult getting baptized and confirmed next week. But the priest will be the one doing my confirmation . He said he will just permission from the bishop , but I thought that the Bishop has to be the one who does it and if he can’t then he sends another bishop to do it and only under necassary circumstances then can he have a priest do it If he can’t get another bishop ? I know priests can confirm while they baptize in easter Vigil , but we aren’t talking about easter vigil here …just a regular Sunday of and event … By canon law wouldnt a bishop Have to come ?

CIC (Latin Canon Law)

Can. 883 The following possess the faculty of administering confirmation by the law itself:
1/ within the boundaries of their jurisdiction, those who are equivalent in law to a diocesan bishop;
2/ as regards the person in question, the presbyter (a priest) who by virtue of office or mandate of the diocesan bishop baptizes one who is no longer an infant or admits one already baptized into the full communion of the Catholic Church;
3/ as regards those who are in danger of death, the pastor or indeed any presbyter.

 

[TomH1]

Priests can confirm. They can do this when the common law (i.e. the Code of Canon Law) so provides, if a particular law provides AND if their bishop grants them the faculty to do so.

Thus if your priest is going to confirm you accept that he has the necessary authority granted to him from the diocesan bishop.

Why would you come to the conclusion that the priest is going to effectively simulate a sacrament that you would not actually receive?

Welcome home to the Church and learn to be at peace that the Church and her ministers know what they are doing.

 

[Jshy]

Because the same priest said people can take communion three times a day , when you can only do so twice from what I know… I just wanna make sure I’m gonna be validly getting it done . Priest have done “we” baptisms and everything , they are not perfect at their jobs all the time nor follow canon law all the time .

 

[TomH1]

Priests and bishops can and do make mistakes. Like all humans they are fallible. However, we address mistakes when they are made if required. We do not take the general view they will usually be wrong.

Have you talked to your priest about why he said we can receive Communion thrice in one day? There are circumstances when that is possible.

Are you certain the priest is saying ‘we’ rather than ‘I’?

If you do not believe your priest has been granted permission by the bishop to administer your confirmation the only way you are going to get an answer is if you contact the bishop’s office directly or the chancery being the department which would usually issue such permissions.

 

[Jshy]

He said during all saints / all souls that he does three masses and we can receive all three times in one day during those days .

And no he never said a “we” baptism as far as a know . I was just stating that sometimes they do make mistakes like you said … for the most part I trust their judgments absolutely . But I have some bad scrupulosity especially when I know things like that happen and that they don’t always follow canon law Or look into before they do/say something…

What if he forgets to get permission , can’t he still do it though since he is baptizing me in our own parish? Doesn’t canon law allow for that? I just worry because He is very forgetful . He baptized my kids few months ago and keeps asking me if they have been baptized and forgets a lot . But I understand they deal with so many baptisms and people . Especially the older you get ( and I don’t say that in disrespectful way) it happens , people loose their memory the older they get .

 

[Dovekin]

The proper question is Can I be baptized outside of the Easter Vigil? The answer is yes, though the Vigil is the preferred occasion for adult baptisms.

According to canon 866 “an adult who is baptized is to be confirmed immediately after baptism…” There are exceptions, but generally, if a priest baptizes an adult, he should confirm that person as well. If it cannot be done immediately, it should be done soon after.

 

[TomH1]

No, as I understand it (Disclaimer: I am not a canon lawyer) a priest can only confirm (1) in danger of death or (2) if his bishop has granted him the necessary permission, generally called a faculty.

You won’t find your answer here.

Either ask your priest, or the diocesan bishop or even search for ‘pagella of faculties’ on your diocesan website. These are the list of faculties a bishop generally grants to priests in his diocese. Some dioceses put them on their websites and some do not. Your bishop may have granted priests the faculty to confirm when they administer baptism to an adult.

 

[Jshy]

No that’s not “the proper question “because that’s not getting my real question out there… I already know people can get baptized outside of easter vigil , I’m not asking that …I just didn’t know if confirmation stood granted by priest In the same way outside of the vigil as it is in vigil or if it was just at the vigil he could take matters into his own hands in regards of confirmation because the whole reason would be that vigil is to busy for the bishop to make it to everyone … but this isn’t the case at just ordinary sundays

But that answer
was Great! Thank you so much for the help .

 

[Jshy]

Ok well thank you so much for your help. I’ll take your advice… maybe Covid pandemic is a necassary reason… but as Vico shown , it seems that they can already do this by law if they baptize you as a adult themselves .

 

[edward_george1]

In the case where an adult is baptized, whether at the Easter Vigil or not, the law grants the faculty to confirm. A delegated faculty is only necessary if the person is already baptized.

Because of COVID, I had to confirm our teens this year in my parish, and so I had to write the Bishop for delegation to confirm them, and ask for such by name for each individual. But there was one girl in the class who, due to a strange family situation, had never been baptized, and who got baptized at the confirmation service. I didn’t have to have delegation to validly confirm her.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[TomH1]

is a necassary reason

I am not sure where you get that phrase from. Canon law says the ordinary minister of confirmation, i.e. the one who should usually administer the sacrament, is a bishop (Can. 882). The same canon says a priest can confirm if the common law (i.e. the Code of Canon Law) permits and it does when someone is in danger of death (Can. 883 No. 3)).

It goes on to say a priest can administer confirmation if he is equivalent in law to a bishop, the office he holds permits him to confirm or his bishop or another ecclesiastical authority gives him permission.

This is where the faculties in your diocese may come into play. The bishop of your diocese may have granted all priests or perhaps just parish priests (pastors) the faculty to confirm an adult if they baptise them.

That’s why I said the only real way to know for sure is to find out what your local circumstances are.

 

[Dovekin]

Canon 883 §2 says that a priest, when baptizing an adult has the faculty to confirm from the law itself…

That is the canonical answer. In practice, priests may inform the bishop, or his staff, that they are baptizing someone. But that is not required by the law. The faculty is given by the law to a priest when baptizing an adult.

 

[Jshy]

Thank you for the answer Father .

 

[Jshy]

Thanks, for clarifying… so I don’t even need to check the faculties of my diocese then . The law already provides the faculty in itself .

 

[redcatholic]

I was confirmed by a priest on a college campus in November. So, yes.

 

[lilypadrees]

Yes, he can.

 

[Phemie]

Canon 883 §2 says that a priest, when baptizing an adult has the faculty to confirm from the law itself…

That is the canonical answer. In practice, priests may inform the bishop, or his staff, that they are baptizing someone. But that is not required by the law. The faculty is given by the law to a priest when baptizing an adult.

Actually, yes, the Bishop is to be informed that an adult is being baptized. Most Bishops do not choose to administer Baptism to all the adults in their diocese, for obvious reasons.

Can. 863 The baptism of adults, at least of those who have completed their fourteenth year, is to be deferred to the diocesan bishop so that he himself administers it if he has judged it Expedient.