Confirmation carried out with Cotton Buds

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Our Parish Priest has been delegated by the bishop because of the virus to carry out the Confirmation of nearly 150 children. He will be not be using his thumb to sign the cross on the forehead of each candidate but instead will be using cotton buds instead. Can this be right?
 
TheCid said:
Can this be right?
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Yes. It is valid.

The USCCB sent a dubium to the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments on May 14, 2020, asking whether an instrument could be used to anoint with chrism in Confirmation and received an affirmative on June 2, 2020.
 
Besides the dubium (which, in light of that, we need nothing further), I don’t recall anything in the rite calling for physical touch — but I’m happy to be corrected.
 
It would be interesting to hear from one of our member priests about whether either of these are specifically required:
1 - Hand of the sponsor on the shoulder of the candidate
2 - Touch on the cheek by the Bishop / Priest - from what I heard that’s a symbolic version of what used to be a slap to “drive out the devil” but that’s probably totally inaccurate! 🙂
 
I’m certain “1” isn’t required, and for the last 20 years, I’ve never seen “2” occur.
 
Our Bishop touched (full palm) each of our cheeks. 🙂

Edit: As in one cheek per candidate
 
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1ke said:
This isn’t part of the confirmation rite in the OF.
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I know. I didn’t mean to say it was. Nonetheless, I was hugged at my confirmation (OF), and another person I know was slapped (EF).
 
Fauken said:
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1ke:
This isn’t part of the confirmation rite in the OF.
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I know. I didn’t mean to say it was. Nonetheless, I was hugged at my confirmation (OF), and another person I know was slapped (EF).
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Hmmm… I don’'t think any priest or bishop would DARE to hug a child/teenager nowadays.
 
paperwight said:
Hmmm… I don’'t think any priest or bishop would DARE to hug a child/teenager nowadays.
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I was an adult when I was confirmed, so perhaps it varies. And it also happened within the last five years, so quite recent.
 
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Me too. RCIA adults…2017. I’ve seen our Bishop do the same thing at the past two Easter Vigils too.
 
It’s a shame the “smack on the cheek” is no longer practiced. It has wonderful and much needed meaning:

St. Robert Bellarmine (from his “Art of Dying Well”):
In Confirmation a slight blow is given to us, that so the Christian soldier may learn to fight, not by striking, but by enduring…[Confirmation] bestows the gifts of spiritual wisdom and of charity, which is “patient and kind;" and as a sign of this most rare and yet most precious virtue of patience, the Bishop gives the person about to be confirmed a slight blow, that he may remember he now becomes a soldier of Christ, not to strike, but to endure; not to do injuries to others, but to bear them. In the Christian warfare, he fights not against visible but invisible enemies; for thus did Christ our great commander fight and conquer, who being nailed to the cross, conquered the infernal powers; thus did the Apostles fight, only just confirmed, for being severely scourged in the council of the Jews, they went forth " rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." The grace of Confirmation then effects this, that when a man is unjustly injured, he should not think of revenge, but rejoice that he suffered reproach unjustly.
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I’ve seen this before and wondered about the meaning of the man before the nun, but, in close up, I’m now also curious about the blindfold…? 🤔
 
Cecilia2017 said:
I’ve seen this before and wondered about the meaning of the man before the nun, but, in close up, I’m now also curious about the blindfold…? 🤔
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I don’t think those are blindfolds. They look like they’re being used to keep the chrism from dripping, just like how a priest’s hands are bound after they’ve been consecrated with chrism at his ordination.
 
Cecilia2017 said:
I’ve seen this before and wondered about the meaning of the man before the nun, but, in close up, I’m now also curious about the blindfold…? 🤔
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That’s not a blindfold–see others wearing it like a headband? It was an old custom done in some places that symbolized the sealing of the Holy Spirit (and probably had the practical effect Fauken described).

The other one is not a nun, but a hooded priest hearing a confession. Not sure why he’s hooded, one interpretation I’ve read is it symbolized a judge–not sure if it was artistic license or whether priests actually did that.
 
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Cecilia2017 said:
2 - Touch on the cheek by the Bishop / Priest - from what I heard that’s a symbolic version of what used to be a slap to “drive out the devil” but that’s probably totally inaccurate! 🙂
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I have a long history of stiff-necked thickheadedness, and so was very disappointed when the Bishop didn’t slap me silly. It might have done me some good.
 
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A chrisom was a white headband worn at confirmation to keep the oil from running down the face, or from being rubbed off. In some places it was worn for a week, which would not be popular these days. The practice took a somewhat gruesome turn when chrisom started referring to babies who died less than a month after baptism.

The rite calls for an anointing with the laying on of hands. Doesn’t the bishop put his hand on the head of the person being confirmed? This is the matter of the sacrament, so kind of important.
 
Does it count if I’ve been tempted to slap someone during one of these Masses?
 
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