Can Priests administer Confirmation?

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Today at the Easter Vigil Mass at my home Parish, there were candidates for Baptism who were confirmed by the Pastor.

I thought only bishops could confirm, and in extraordinary circumstances the bishop can give persmission/authority to the priest to do so.

I do not know if this was the case here or if there is an exception in Easter Vigil Masses…?

Pax Christ, Happy Easter!
Juan J.
 
Thank you,
though it says that a presbyter can by “virtue of universal law or the special grant of the competent authority”
and,
“If necessity requires it, he can grant the faculty to one or more specific presbyters, who are to administer this sacrament”

So I should just suppose he had permission, right?
 
J1Priest said:
Thank you,
though it says that a presbyter can by “virtue of universal law or the special grant of the competent authority”
and,
“If necessity requires it, he can grant the faculty to one or more specific presbyters, who are to administer this sacrament”

So I should just suppose he had permission, right?
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It is normal for the priest who baptizes at the Vigil to also be the one who confirms since the Bishop is usually busy in his own parish for this celebration.

We’ve actually had a situations arise every couple of years where a child who has prepared for confirmation will be away from the parish on the day the Bishop is in to confirm. In those cases our pastor has requested and been granted permission to confirm them at a later date.
 
Yep. Just imagine if the bishop had to confirm all the adults of his diocese.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the only sacrament specifically reserved to the bishop. So, priests, with permission and in certain circumstances can confirm even though the bishop is the ordinary minister of confirmation.
 
ordinarily the priest who baptizes adults at the Easter Vigil must confirm at the same time, and they must be admitted to communion. The bishop, may however, reserve the right to confirm to himself, in which case if he does not preside at the vigil, the neophytes may be brought to him for confirmation at a later date, but must be during Eastertide. Our bishop reserves confirmation of baptized Catholics to himself, but gives the faculty to confirm the newly baptized, or baptized Christians coming into full communion, to the priest at the Easter vigil. A priest who confirms baptized non-Catholics at other times during the year, or who confirms previously baptized Catholics for good reason (life-threatening illness etc). must get permission which is granted only for that specific occasion.

some senior priests such as the vicar general or deans are also granted a limited faculty to confirm, in this diocese, in the parish celebrations for youth, or at the general celebration for adults at Pentecost, to assist the bishop. that also is a specific permission limited to a specific occasion. in this diocese, if a youth for example “misses” the date for confirmations in his parish, he may petition for permission to join youth in another parish for their celebration.
 
J1Priest said:
Today at the Easter Vigil Mass at my home Parish, there were candidates for Baptism who were confirmed by the Pastor.

I thought only bishops could confirm, and in extraordinary circumstances the bishop can give persmission/authority to the priest to do so.

I do not know if this was the case here or if there is an exception in Easter Vigil Masses…?

Pax Christ, Happy Easter!
Juan J.
Click to expand...
A priest has the ability to Confirm those adults he Baptizes by virtue of Canon Law.
 
J1Priest said:
Thank you,
though it says that a presbyter can by “virtue of universal law or the special grant of the competent authority”
and,
“If necessity requires it, he can grant the faculty to one or more specific presbyters, who are to administer this sacrament”

So I should just suppose he had permission, right?
Click to expand...
The Bishop grants his permission to Baptize the adults whos names are in the book of the Elect which he signs at the Rite of Election. The Bishop grants his permission to Confirm the Candidates when their names are submitted to himin a letter from the pastor.
 
Our bishop has also granted permission for all priests in the diocese to confirm adult Catholics on Pentecost.
 
LRThunder said:
Yep. Just imagine if the bishop had to confirm all the adults of his diocese.
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That is the way it was done in my Hometown diocese of Greensburg. Confirmation of all adults was done on Pentecost Sunday by the Bishop at the Cathedral. I know because that is how mine was done.
 
Yes, priests can do that at Easter Vilgil Mass.
We went to Easter Vilgil Mass last night because I have a friend that she just converted to Roman Catholic faith right from Baptist and one of my firends brought her to Roman Catholic Church and now she’s Catholic, I also asked her if she’s interested in joining this website to know more about the Catholic Church and she got baptized, confirmed, and made her First Commuion, it was pretty good actually and when the organ stopped right after my dad took a picture of my friend and head out to the door and the girl started clapping like an idoit and I was like “oh you idoit, you know better than that when you’re in Church” and I feel like saying to the girl “If you’re going to do that, do it at somewhere else and do it, not in Church” because I know that a Church is the Lord’s home for Catholic prayerful people.
 
Last year, the Bishop assigned to do Confirmation at one of the local churches got very sick and was unable to come out. A quick phone call to the pastor, and the pastor was given the faculty to confirm, and handled the matter himself.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
A priest has the ability to Confirm those adults he Baptizes by virtue of Canon Law.
Click to expand...
Our Priest made this clear at the Eatser Vigil. he baptized a young man and then confirmed him. he then went to confirm an adult and told the congregation that since he did not baptize the adult he had to have permission from the Bishop to confim him.
 
estesbob said:
Our Priest made this clear at the Eatser Vigil. he baptized a young man and then confirmed him. he then went to confirm an adult and told the congregation that since he did not baptize the adult he had to have permission from the Bishop to confim him.
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They have to have permission if the person was baptized Catholic not if he was baptized in another Christian faith. We had one man make first communmion and confirmation at the Vigil and since he was Catholic we needed to get permission for his confirmation only.
 
Exactly.

Out of the 3 of us who were confirmed at the Easter Vigil on Saturday, the Priest had to get permission to confirm two of us (I have already been baptised Catholic and recieved First Communion when I was 8) and the other gal was baptised Catholic but had not received first communion yet.
The 3rd gal was coming in full, although baptised in a non-Catholic church.
 
Brendan is right about the canonical nature of all of this…anyone who is baptized at or above the ‘age of reason’ (7 or 8 years old) must receive confirmation immediately. It’s not even optional in canon law.

This causes some controversy when children are baptized at the age of 7 or above because they have to be confirmed, thus in some people’s eyes “missing out” on confirmation classes, service hours, etc.
 
frommi said:
Brendan is right about the canonical nature of all of this…anyone who is baptized at or above the ‘age of reason’ (7 or 8 years old) must receive confirmation immediately. It’s not even optional in canon law.

This causes some controversy when children are baptized at the age of 7 or above because they have to be confirmed, thus in some people’s eyes “missing out” on confirmation classes, service hours, etc.
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I wanted to run further with your point, frommi. Many people have been mentioning that with a bishop’s permission a priest may validly and licitly confer the sacrament of confirmation. In the case of receiving an adult (i.e., as you point out, someone above the age of reason) into the Church, though, what that sort of phraseology overlooks is that a priest has the faculties by virtue of the law itself. If he is receiving someone into the Church he needs no specific permission from his bishop to confirm because the canons confer this faculty upon him by the very fact of his receiving them into the church. Also, you’re quite correct that this is not optional. The law says that any presbyters possessing this faculty must use it in favor of the faithful, so a priest receiving someone into full communion, whether that someone was previously baptized or not, must confirm that person by law and also already has the faculties by law.
 
puzzleannie said:
Our bishop reserves confirmation of baptized Catholics to himself, but gives the faculty to confirm the newly baptized, or baptized Christians coming into full communion, to the priest at the Easter vigil.

some senior priests such as the vicar general or deans are also granted a limited faculty to confirm, in this diocese, in the parish celebrations for youth, or at the general celebration for adults at Pentecost, to assist the bishop.
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PuzzleAnnie…I think we are in the same Diocese. In fact, the Vicar General is my pastor. He is a really holy man who preaches an amazing homily.

And I admire our bishop. He has had to take several slings and arrows unjustly by members of a parish that had gone too modern and bordered on heterodoxy. Our bishop, like his vicar general, is a holy man. I like what he has done to promote the Sacrament of Penance and to clean up the liturgy in the diocese.

I have been a confirmation sponsor to four different kids in four different parishes. (I work as volunteer in a youth program and I get asked to do this a lot.) However, I have yet to attend a Confirmation Mass where our Bishop was administered the Confirmation. I understand that he has 50-something parishes in four counties to worry about.
 
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