Confirmations in Advent

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Tis_Bearself

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Today I was working and planned to go to a 5:30 Mass at a church I often attend that’s not far from the office. After fighting rush hour traffic to get to the church I discovered that literally every parking space in the two church lots, the adjacent cemetery and the whole surrounding neighborhood was parked up and I saw some guy in a suit on the church steps, so given that I would have been an extra 15 minutes finding a parking space and I was already a few minutes late, I gave up and drove back in the other direction for my Thursday prayer group meeting. I thought maybe it was a big wedding or some school event as the church runs a prep school, but when I got parked someplace and looked at their bulletin, they were having Confirmation. I presume from the amount of cars it was confirmations of the class of school students (Maybe more than one school given the sheer number of cars) and not just a few adults entering the Church.

Is this normal to have Confirmation in Advent? I’ve never seen this anywhere else. Usually Confirmation is in the spring or the early summer.
 
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I had my Confirmation during Advent, so I would say that it is indeed normal. Dioceses probably have to make sure that their parishes have Confirmations spread out through different parts of the year so that the Bishop can make it to all of them.

May God bless you all! 🙂
 
Interesting. It’s just something I never encountered before. This is a large Archdiocese so I would imagine it is indeed hard to get all the confirmations scheduled.
 
At my parish and the other parish in town, Confirmation in Advent has been fairly common. It’s been that way for the past 3 years at least. We finally pushed it to February this year, though.

As nice as it is to not have everything take place in the Spring, it’s also common for students to stop attending faith formation once they are confirmed. It’s sad to have to consider that, but that’s the way it goes.
 
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In my parish we had my conformation at my local catholic church. The rite of sending was done in the biggest metropolitan area near the town i live in. The bishop of the Archdiocese blessed everyone there as he was leaving the cathedral which was a few weeks before Easter vigil of 2018.
 
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In my diocese, we have Confirmations all year, except for during Lent.

Most are done at our Cathedral, on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evening at 7pm
 
If Baptisms aren’t allowed during Advent, how can Confirmations be?
 
According to the CCC and this article from Catholic Answers, Baptisms can place during Advent.

www.catholic.com

Baptism in Advent

Yes, baptism can take place during Advent. There is no Church rule that forbids it. In fact, canon 856 explicitly states that baptism can take place on any day,...
www.catholic.com www.catholic.com

May God bless you all! 🙂
 
babochka said:
Why are baptisms not allowed in Advent?
Click to expand...
So baptisms are allowed in Advent?
I could have sworn I saw someone posting on here that their parish priest didn’t want to baptize their baby till after Advent, and they didn’t like having to wait, but I may be remembering it wrong or have read it wrong.

Edited to add, I found a Jimmy Akin post on the matter, so I’m not dreaming - some parishes don’t baptize babies in Advent.

www.ncregister.com

Should Babies Be Denied Baptism Just Because It's Advent?

You sometimes hear about people being asked to delay receiving the sacraments because they are not performed at certain times of year--like Advent or Lent o...
www.ncregister.com www.ncregister.com
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
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babochka:
Why are baptisms not allowed in Advent?
Click to expand...
So baptisms are allowed in Advent?
I could have sworn I saw someone posting on here that their parish priest didn’t want to baptize their baby till after Advent, and they didn’t like having to wait, but I may be remembering it wrong or have read it wrong.

Edited to add, I found a Jimmy Akin post on the matter, so I’m not dreaming - some parishes don’t baptize babies in Advent.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/can-babies-be-baptized-in-advent
Click to expand...
I’ve never heard of this. I have heard that some parishes won’t schedule baptisms during Lent, but having them not allowed in Advent is totally new to me. My guess is that these are parishes that have monthly baptisms scheduled and they just don’t schedule during Advent because everyone is so busy. It makes me sad.
 
I didn’t/ don’t have any babies, but I have to admit the idea of needing to wait around for a month or longer to have a baby baptized creeps me out a bit. You never know what might happen to your baby. I liked the old practice of taking the baby to be baptized within a few days of its being born or, if the baby was not strong, the parents would take it to the church right away.

I would be sorely tempted to do the “emergency baptism” for the baby myself rather than wait a whole month, but then you don’t get to have a church baptism with the family there. (Unless you lie to the priest and don’t tell him you did the emergency baptism, which of course is a sin.)
 
My parish has had Confirmation the 1st week of December, for many years now.

I never agreed with it, especially when I was part of the music group who played for Confirmation, I saw the strain on the members as it was Christmas time and between work and their own family events, having to go out on a week-night to play for Confirmation just wasn’t reasonable.

Now the Bishop doesn’t want to travel to all the parishes in my area, so they all have to have Confirmation at one larger church, but it’s still at the beginning of December, i.e. Advent.
 
Confirmation is when the bishop says it is.

My twins were baptized during advent 16 years ago.
 
As far as not doing baptisms during Advent it is more an issue of scheduling than anything else. There is so much that goes on during the season of Advent and many parishes don’t do weddings or baptisms.

In our diocese all confirmations are done in the Spring.
 
Confirmations can take place year round as can baptisms. I think many priests may not be accommodating because it’s a busy time of the year. But, it’s not banned.

In my diocese the bishop does confirmations throughout the year. He simply couldn’t get round the entire diocese in spring.

If a confirmation is administered at Mass on one of the Sundays of Advent the colour purple would have to be used and the propers would be those of the Sunday and not the Confirmation ritual Mass.
 
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