Confirmation by a priest

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I went through confirmation as an adult. In grade school, my mom switched me from one school to another and then back to the first one. In that shuffle, I missed the confirmation at both schools.

Sacrament prep in 2015, confirmed at my local parish by the bishop vicar on pentecost 2016.

My wife went through rcia last year and got initiated this easter vigil. Our local reverend performed the confirmation.

Though the bishop is nice, the confirmation is even nicer!

Blessings and I think the Holy Spirit is as excited about what you two are to do together just as much as you are!
 
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OP, please don’t get in the habit of criticizing your bishop or pastor for his decisions. Our attitude should be: how can we help our pastors? They have many thousands of souls to care for. You can ask your bishop for his personal blessing the next time you see him.
 
I’m not criticizing him. Preferring that the bishop do your Confirmation is not criticizing; it’s perfectly reasonable.
 
Honestly, I was so glad to finally be through the gates that it never occurred to me it could have been the bishop. Although I was absurdly pleased when the bishop blessed the rosary I bought from Walsingham without me asking.
 
semper_catholicus said:
I’m not criticizing him. Preferring that the bishop do your Confirmation is not criticizing; it’s perfectly reasonable.
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semper_catholicus said:
I wouldn’t mind if it was less extravagant either, but I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to want the bishop to confirm you. After all, it’s his job and he is the ordinary minister of the sacrament.
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Neither of these are unreasonable.

You can be disappointed.

But part of being an adult is understanding that life happens. The bishop can’t be everywhere.
 
I honestly don’t remember. It was at my parish with my 10th grade confirmation class, but cannot remember if the bishop or vicar general were present. I actually wanted to be confirmed, but the exact minister made no impression on me. I wouldn’t worry about it.
 
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semper_catholicus said:
I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to want the bishop to confirm you. After all, it’s his job and he is the ordinary minister of the sacrament.
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There are too many possible reasons why the Bishop isn’t going to do Confirmation for you.
 
i did not go through regular RCIA classes because i was from the Episcopal church and i was allowed to fast track the process. i also had been studying for 10
years on my own. RCIA was ending so after the Easter Vigil i worked 1 on 1 with the RCIA leader once a week for about 8
weeks. the priest performed the ceremony when i was received into the church and i was fine with that. when i was confirmed into the Episcopal church the Bishop confirmed us during the Sunday worship service.
my reception into the Catholic church was private in the afternoon. it did not bother me that i was not confirmed by our Bishop.
 
It is a tradition to prepare the fully initiated Christian for the persecution and hatred then will face in their journey.
 
Christ administers the sacrament through the minister provided, be it the Bishop or the priest assigned to do so.

Be at peace.
 
semper_catholicus said:
I’m not criticizing him. Preferring that the bishop do your Confirmation is not criticizing; it’s perfectly reasonable.
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I don’t know how it is in all dioceses, but typically, in the ones around here, a Bishop only confirms the children who are go thought the typical child faith formation process (either via the Catholic schools or via the child faith formation program for non-Catholic school students).

Converts are typically brought in via the Easter Vigil, and since the bishop can’t be at all Easter Vigils, priests have obviously been delegated the ability to perform Confirmation.

Finally, regarding adults who are confirmed outside of the Easter Vigil, for some reason parishes (at least in the United States) are reluctant to confirm adults with the children for some reason. Personally, to me, it would make a lot of sense to confirm adults the same time the bishop comes to confirm the kids.

However, I guess for multiple reasons, this isn’t typically done.
 
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One reason I have heard, is that the homily is easier to understand for young people when there are only young people confirmed and when adults are confirmed it is a “normal” homily. I find this a very silly reason. A bishop should be able to talk so that both young and old understand.

My parish confirms “young and older” at the same time especially if there aren’t that many young. More of a reasoning “Since the bishop is coming he might as well confirm the adults too.”.

I asked my parish priest if I could be confirmed the next time our bishop came to celebrate mass. Our sisters invite the bishop when they are celebrating something like their patron saint or gather all sisters in the local area. Every once in a while the bishop can come so I was confirmed at one of those celebrations.

Edit: Once a parish priest confirmed some 25 adults instead of the bishop. He had to be in Rome as we got a new saint in the diocese. I suggested that we all travel to Rome and have the Sacrament of Confirmation celebrated there. Pretty sure the bishop of Rome wouldn’t mind let us use one of the beautiful churches. I wouldt have loved going to Rome as I was a sponsor. Money, money, money…
 
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I was Confirmed by a Monsignore. My parish now is also nearly on the edge of the diocese so the pastor is generally the one to Confirm.
 
semper_catholicus said:
Hello all.

I am about to be confirmed at my parish in a couple of days. Very excited; I have been waiting several years for this. One thing that kind of bothers me though is that it will be the parish priest administering confirmation, not the local bishop. I know it’s perfectly valid and licit for the bishop to delegate this responsibility to a priest when he needs to, but I would really prefer it if the bishop administered it. Was anyone else here confirmed by their parish priest rather than the bishop? I don’t mean like if you’re a convert and were received into the Church on the Easter Vigil, because the priest always does confirmation then, but I mean did you go through regular religious ed confirmation prep, and then get confirmed by the priest and not the bishop, even though the bishop could theoretically have done it?
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That’s not correct, or at least not everywhere.

I was a baptised Methodist and was received into the Church Easter 1992 but our (everyone in RCIA) Confirmation (which was by the Bishop) was done 6 months later.
 
thistle said:
I was a baptised Methodist and was received into the Church Easter 1992 but our (everyone in RCIA) Confirmation (which was by the Bishop) was done 6 months later.
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Fascinating! I have not heard of a practice like that before.

Non-catholic Christians who are received into full communion are generally confirmed by the pastor of the parish; the power to confirm is in the rite, not by delegation from the bishop. Of course, bishop and pastor still coordinate with one another. Communion is the culmination of the process, and confirmation is a step in that process.

Unconfirmed Catholics who have already received Communion are supposed to be confirmed by the bishop, but he delegates that to the pastor in many cases, especially if rcia classes are involved. A mixed group of non-catholics and unconfirmed catholics that have learned together can pose some problems given the differences in who is supposed to minister.

I like that they received you into communion (so you join in our holiest festival?) even though they delayed confirmation. I have not really considered that possibility before.

Bishops oversee all of this, and can do whatever they consider appropriate, which is why we get differences from place ro place.
 
Dovekin said:
Fascinating! I have not heard of a practice like that before.

Non-catholic Christians who are received into full communion are generally confirmed by the pastor of the parish; the power to confirm is in the rite, not by delegation from the bishop. Of course, bishop and pastor still coordinate with one another. Communion is the culmination of the process, and confirmation is a step in that process.

Unconfirmed Catholics who have already received Communion are supposed to be confirmed by the bishop, but he delegates that to the pastor in many cases, especially if rcia classes are involved. A mixed group of non-catholics and unconfirmed catholics that have learned together can pose some problems given the differences in who is supposed to minister.

I like that they received you into communion (so you join in our holiest festival?) even though they delayed confirmation. I have not really considered that possibility before.

Bishops oversee all of this, and can do whatever they consider appropriate, which is why we get differences from place ro place.
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I should have added that from the moment of being received into the Church we received and continued to receive Communion despite Confirmation being 6 months down the road.
 
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