Communion Before Confirmation

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Dave27360

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I was baptized outside of the Catholic church. I do have plans in attending RCIA and being confirmed Easter 2013. The Catholic church is the only church that I have been attending I no longer consider myself Protestant. Can I worthily receive communion if I am in a state of grace, made a valid confession since my last mortal sin, believe in transubstantiation, observed the Eucharistic fast, and am not under excommunication? The priest at my local parish has already let me participate in confession since I believe in the teachings of the Catholic church and plan on going through RCIA and being confirmed.
 
Speak to your priest. If you have a valid baptism, you have lived as a Christian and know the teachings of the church you can be confirmed and receive the Eucharist without going through RCIA. You can be brought into the church now.
 
From the link:
The timing of their reception into the Church also is different. The U.S. Conference of Bishops states, "It is preferable that reception into full communion not take place at the Easter Vigil lest there be any confusion of such baptized Christians with the candidates for baptism, possible misunderstanding of or even reflection upon the sacrament of baptism celebrated in another church or ecclesial community . . . " (NSC 33).
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Rather than being received on Easter Vigil, “[t]he reception of candidates into the communion of the Catholic Church should ordinarily take place at the Sunday Eucharist of the parish community, in such a way that it is understood that they are indeed Christian believers who have already shared in the sacramental life of the Church and are now welcomed into the Catholic Eucharistic community . . .” (NSC 32).
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I really don’t believe most churches follow this.
 
TrueLight said:
From the link:

I really don’t believe most churches follow this.
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In my case I spoke to the priest and he questioned me and asked for letters stating that my faith was true. I did not go through RCIA and was brought into the church 2 weeks after our meeting. The other 4 did go through RCIA and were already Christians, all but one was Baptist as well. I guess since none of us needed to be baptized I received the Sacraments as well at the Easter Vigil. Since the wording of the NSC leaves the door open for confirmation/Eucharist to be given at the Easter Vigil I feel extra blessed that it happened for me that night instead of another Sunday.
 
Thank You for the link to that article.

I consider that I have lived a Christian life prior to my interest in joining the Catholic church. I also believe I am educated on the basic beliefs of the Catholic Church. From what I can tell it looks like this is up to each Diocese, Parish, and Paster. The RCIA educator at my parish is still wanting me to go through the RCIA to be “properly educated” on the Catholic beliefs. In his office I noticed that both catechumens and candidates were on a board listed underneath RCIA. I think it would be best for me to contact my RCIA educator or Paster and discuss this further with them since each Parish has there own set of rules which should be the same as those stated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
 
Yes, do speak to your Pastor. It is the Priest’s decision on whether or not he feels you are ready. It’s not the RCIA director’s decision.
 
I believe that you need to be confirmed into the fullness of the Catholic faith in order to participate in communion (with the exception of grave matter/imminent death). It is not for any individual to decide for themselves when they are ready for communion. Confirmation is required.

During confirmation then you will make a PUBLIC profession of your faith and your belief in all that the church teaches, and then be anointed with the sacramental oil (Crism), etc…, all of which is necessary in order to become a true member and be in full communion with the Catholic Church. Confession is only a first step towards that, and does not fulfill what is necessary for a person to participate in communion with the Catholic community. You must be confirmed.
That is how I understand it, as explained by my Monsignor, and done in our parish.
 
maltmom said:
Speak to your priest. If you have a valid baptism, you have lived as a Christian and know the teachings of the church you can be confirmed and receive the Eucharist without going through RCIA. You can be brought into the church now.
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That would be highly unusual and unlikely.
 
Nigel7 said:
I believe that you need to be confirmed into the fullness of the Catholic faith in order to participate in communion (with the exception of grave matter/imminent death). It is not for any individual to decide for themselves when they are ready for communion. Confirmation is required.
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That’s not true in all cases. As a baptized Christian, I was received into the Church in September 2011 and had my first communion the next day. I made my profession of faith during the rite of reception.

I was confirmed in March of this year.
 
thistle said:
That would be highly unusual and unlikely.
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I am an example as is someone else that I know. I did not attend RCIA and was confirmed and received the Eucharist at this year’s Easter Vigil. The other person I know went to RCIA and after a month she was confirmed and received the Eucharist. I had studied the catechism on my own, prayed and met with the priest. We discussed matters of faith and church doctrine. He felt that I had spent sufficient time (a year) studying the faith. That my faith was true. He did require outside confirmation that my faith was true. Had I just met with him and said that I had decided the week before that I wanted to be Catholic and had not had the preparation that I had I’m sure things would have been different.
 
maltmom said:
I am an example as is someone else that I know. I did not attend RCIA and was confirmed and received the Eucharist at this year’s Easter Vigil. The other person I know went to RCIA and after a month she was confirmed and received the Eucharist. I had studied the catechism on my own, prayed and met with the priest. We discussed matters of faith and church doctrine. He felt that I had spent sufficient time (a year) studying the faith. That my faith was true. He did require outside confirmation that my faith was true. Had I just met with him and said that I had decided the week before that I wanted to be Catholic and had not had the preparation that I had I’m sure things would have been different.
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👍 Welcome home.
 
TrueLight said:
That’s not true in all cases. As a baptized Christian, I was received into the Church in September 2011 and had my first communion the next day. I made my profession of faith during the rite of reception.

I was confirmed in March of this year.
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On whose authority were you receiving communion? Not on your own I hope - since prior to your confirmation then you had no authority to make such a decision.

The point of my post was that, as I said, it is not for any individual prior to their confirmation to decide for themselves when they are ready to receive communion. So I am assuming that it was on the authority of a priest at your parish. No?
 
Nigel7 said:
On whose authority were you receiving communion? Not on your own I hope - since prior to your confirmation then you had no authority to make such a decision.

The point of my post was that, as I said, it is not for any individual prior to their confirmation to decide for themselves when they are ready to receive communion. So I am assuming that it was on the authority of a priest at your parish. No?
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Of course it was on authority of a priest. How else would I have been “received into the Church?”.

I had two months of instruction.

I am only addressing the point that not everyone gets received (and allowed to receive communion) and confirmed at the same time. And it doesn’t have to be a grave case.

Unless by “confirmed”, you didn’t necessarily mean the sacrament of Confirmation.
 
In this case I was not talking about the rite of welcoming but actually being able to receive communion worthily during mass.

I spoke with my RCIA director on this. He first congratulated my decision to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He said that Receiving Communion Before Confirmation would put him in a quandary. It usually takes adults 8 months or more to prepare for Confirmation and to enable them to make a profession of faith. In my situation being that I have lived a Christian life prior to converting to Catholicism an exemption to this normal process is conceivable. However in doing so I would still needed to go through RCIA to fill in a lot of the blanks and give me a deeper since of Catholicism. The problem is in doing so I would be rubbing shoulders with other adults whom are waiting for Easter to be confirmed. His dilemma is in how to explain handing out one exemption. His suggestion was that I speak with a priest in the parish. It would need to be a priest that understands our parish as well as my own situation. Consider what the priest advises and let him know.

This goes along with the previous posts. It is up to the priest. The Parish I attend is a large one which has 7 Priests “Rev”: 1 Pastor, 1 Parochial Vicar, 1 In Residence, and 4 Permanent Deacons (Two Of Which Retired). Which would be the best one to contact and what would be a proper way to contact? (By Phone, In Person, etc).

Thanks,

David
 
Dave27360 said:
In this case I was not talking about the rite of welcoming but actually being able to receive communion worthily during mass.

I spoke with my RCIA director on this. He first congratulated my decision to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He said that Receiving Communion Before Confirmation would put him in a quandary. It usually takes adults 8 months or more to prepare for Confirmation and to enable them to make a profession of faith. In my situation being that I have lived a Christian life prior to converting to Catholicism an exemption to this normal process is conceivable. However in doing so I would still needed to go through RCIA to fill in a lot of the blanks and give me a deeper since of Catholicism. The problem is in doing so I would be rubbing shoulders with other adults whom are waiting for Easter to be confirmed. His dilemma is in how to explain handing out one exemption. His suggestion was that I speak with a priest in the parish. It would need to be a priest that understands our parish as well as my own situation. Consider what the priest advises and let him know.

This goes along with the previous posts. It is up to the priest. The Parish I attend is a large one which has 7 Priests “Rev”: 1 Pastor, 1 Parochial Vicar, 1 In Residence, and 4 Permanent Deacons (Two Of Which Retired). Which would be the best one to contact and what would be a proper way to contact? (By Phone, In Person, etc).

Thanks,

David
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RCIA after the fact is not a bad idea. I’m not sure what his dilemma is about you attending as a confirmed Catholic or explaining it to others. If someone would question him all he has to do is refer to the rules of the church You can share with him the link I gave you. I have friends who are cradle Catholic, who have always been active in the church go to RCIA to learn more of about their faith…or to remember some of the things they learned as a child that don’t come up very often.

I’m not sure which one for you to try 1st. I would think the head pastor.
 
I wonder if, once again, imprecise terminology is causing some confusion here. I have notice in these threads that some folks seem to use the word “confirmed” to refer to the rite by which a baptized non-Catholic is “received” into the full communion of the Church. This involves a Profession of Faith by the candidate and an Act of Reception by the priest. It often occurs in combination with the baptism of catechumens at the Easter Vigil but it can occur at some other time. During this same Rite of Reception, the newly “received” candidates then receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

The National Statutes speak of “respecting the traditional sequence of confirmation before eucharist” and specify that “the confirmation of such candidates for reception should not deferred nor should they be admitted to eucharist until they are confirmed.”

On the other hand, in using the word “confirmed,” cradle Roman Catholics usually are referring to their reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation which most likely occurred between somewhere between the ages of 8-18 and (except in very recent times in a limited number of dioceses) almost always occurred after receiving First Eucharist.

Hence, two different understandings of “Communion before Confirmation.”

.
 
I wonder if, once again, imprecise terminology is causing some confusion here. I have notice in these threads that some folks seem to use the word “confirmed” to refer to the rite by which a baptized non-Catholic is “received” into the full communion of the Church. This involves a Profession of Faith by the candidate and an Act of Reception by the priest. It often occurs in combination with the baptism of catechumens at the Easter Vigil but it can occur at some other time. During this same Rite of Reception, the newly “received” candidates then receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

The National Statutes speak of “respecting the traditional sequence of confirmation before eucharist” and specify that “the confirmation of such candidates for reception should not deferred nor should they be admitted to eucharist until they are confirmed.” (my note - confirmation here means the receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation)

On the other hand, in using the word “confirmed,” most cradle Roman Catholics are referring to their reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation which most likely occurred between somewhere between the ages of 8-18 and (except in very recent times in a limited number of dioceses) most always occurred after receiving First Eucharist.

I use “most” in the paragraph above because there are also baptized but previously unconfirmed Roman Catholics who receive the Sacrament of Confirmation (as well First Eucharist if they have not already received it) along with the catechumens and candidates at the Easter Vigil.

Hence, different understandings of “Communion before Confirmation.”

And now I wonder if I have clarified or added to the confusion. 🤷

.
 
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