Confirmation for unbelieving kids/teens?

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Lost_sheep2

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This is just out of curiosity. What is the Church’s position on confirming older kids and teenagers who don’t believe and don’t want to receive the Sacraments but their parents are forcing them to?

Just wondering because I was a very outspoken atheist when my parents forced me to get confirmed and I didn’t believe and was in mortal sin when I received the Sacrament. Ditto with confession and First Communion. Is it normal procedure to give the Sacraments to kids over the age of reason who do not believe? (Obviously in my case I am a believing faithful Catholic now).
 
Lost_sheep2 said:
What is the Church’s position on confirming older kids and teenagers who don’t believe and don’t want to receive the Sacraments but their parents are forcing them to?
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If the pastor is aware of this, he cannot recommend them for confirmation. Confirmation would be postponed.
Lost_sheep2 said:
Is it normal procedure to give the Sacraments to kids over the age of reason who do not believe?
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The pastor should postpone the sacraments if the child is not properly disposed.

If the parents are coercive but the priest is unaware if it and the child doesn’t actively make their unbelief known, then practically speaking what is the pastor to do? He would likely administer the sacraments or recommend confirmation to the bishop.
 
Of course there is not much the priest can do if he doesn’t know. I was just wondering if they’re supposed to if they do know about it. I and almost all the other kids I was getting confirmed with did not believe at all and I guess the priest probably didn’t know.
 
This is one the few things I am critical of our Holy Roman Church about. I truly with she would return to her roots when it comes to conferring Sacraments and do it as our Eastern Catholic brothers still do. You get Baptized, Confirmed/Chrismated, and receive First Holy Communion at the same time as an infant. How many children lose their faith growing up who may otherwise have maintained it if they were strengthened by the Sacrament of Confirmation and had regular access to the Eucharist? If we truly believe in the transformative power of the Eucharist, why deny it to young souls when they are being formed and arguably in most need of its grace/strength?
 
OraProNobis333 said:
This is one the few things I am critical of our Holy Roman Church about. I truly with she would return to her roots when it comes to conferring Sacraments and do it as our Eastern Catholic brothers still do. You get Baptized, Confirmed/Chrismated, and receive First Holy Communion at the same time as an infant. How many children lose their faith growing up who may otherwise have maintained it if they were strengthened by the Sacrament of Confirmation and had regular access to the Eucharist? If we truly believe in the transformative power of the Eucharist, why deny it to young souls when they are being formed and arguably in most need of its grace/strength?
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This actually makes a lot of sense, and gets around the dilemma of having received First Communion and Confirmation with possession of one’s reason, but unwillingly.

This said, it is the lesser of two evils, to postpone administration of sacraments if the recipient does not want to receive them, does not manifest the faith needed for them, or both. Confirmation is not absolutely necessary for salvation.
 
It sounds like your priest may have been asleep at the wheel. Were you not interviewed? It makes me wonder if it was valid? A question for my betters, no doubt.
 
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Yes, but there is an issue of consent. If the OP did not freely consent to the Sacrament, was it valid… if this were the Sacrament of Matrimony, the answer would be more obvious. But a Sacrament is a Sacrament.

And yes, I know that an infant cannot consent to a baptism, but it doesn’t outright reject it either.

On a side note, it’s common for priests to perform the rite as well.
 
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Consent is not necessary for validity in confirmation. If it were, then infant confirmation, as is done in the East, wouldn’t be possible.

-Fr ACEGC
 
I was not interviewed as far as I remember. The matter was handled mainly by my school teachers. I don’t think I ever spoke to the priest myself except for my first confession (which I fabricated some stuff about being rude to my parents in, I wasn’t going to actually confess).
 
edward_george1 said:
Consent is not necessary for validity in confirmation. If it were, then infant confirmation, as is done in the East, wouldn’t be possible.

-Fr ACEGC
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Interesting… what’s valid in a confirmation when a person doesn’t consent to it? Isn’t it like saying confession but not being sorry or saying Jesus is your Lord and Savior but not meaning or believing it?

Isn’t a confirmation suppose to reconfirm your life with Christ, when you become an official member of the church?
 
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annad347 said:
Isn’t a confirmation suppose to reconfirm your life with Christ, when you become an official member of the church?
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In the Lutheran Church and in some other Protestant denominations, confirmation is indeed a kind of “reconfirming” of one’s life, or the point where one takes responsibility for his faith. In the Catholic Church, in spite of the fact that we’ve treated it that way in the west in recent decades, that’s never been the case. It is the confirmation of the grace conferred at baptism and the imparting of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was never regarded historically as a “taking responsibility for my faith” or “coming of age.”
 
I like the idea of conferring Confirmation immediately following Baptism.

But I am wondering why there are so many children so steeped in unbelief.
 
edward_george1 said:
It is the confirmation of the grace conferred at baptism and the imparting of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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but aren’t you rejecting it, by not consenting?

FYI I’m not talking about the OP I’m just asking a question to understand the Sacrament of Confirmation is
 
I’m not sure you could simultaneously reject the sacrament and still willingly receive it. If you choose to receive it, you’re not totally rejecting it.

Sacraments work ex opere operato, by the working of the work itself.
 
edward_george1 said:
I’m not sure you could simultaneously reject the sacrament and still willingly receive it. If you choose to receive it, you’re not totally rejecting it.

Sacraments work ex opere operato , by the working of the work itself.
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I understand what you’re saying, but don’t you have to make a conscience desire to be confirmed… to receive or in our case acknowledge the Holy Spirit, accept the Holy Spirit… I mean if you don’t care, if you didn’t die to be reborn again in Christ, if you are exactly the same person as you were before you were confirmed afterwards… doesn’t that matter?
 
annad347 said:
Isn’t a confirmation suppose to reconfirm your life with Christ, when you become an official member of the church?
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No.

You become a member of the Church at baptism. Confirmation confirms your baptism, it strengthens the graces received at baptism and confers the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
 
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