Eastern Orthodox don't need confirmation?

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Hermione

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Hello everyone,

Well I just got confirmed 🙂 But I have a question… I told my priest that I was baptized in the Eastern Orthodox Church, but apparently they combine the sacraments of baptism and confirmation (so if I was baptized, which I very likely was, I was also confirmed). I also read that converts from the Eastern Orthodox faith don’t need to be confirmed as Catholics… but I was confirmed (after being conditionally baptized).

What do you think? Thanks! 🙂
 
Without knowing the specifics of your case or seeing the documents I could only guess that theysimply messed up and should not have Confirmed you “again”
 
Thanks for responding 🙂

I was thinking more about it… but could it be that the Confirmation was conditional because the baptism was?

They gave me conditional baptism because there’s no certificate/witnesses of my previous baptism. (So technically I could have been unbaptized and then therefore unconfirmed?)

Does this make sense?

Thanks!
 
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Hermione:
Hello everyone,

Well I just got confirmed 🙂 But I have a question… I told my priest that I was baptized in the Eastern Orthodox Church, but apparently they combine the sacraments of baptism and confirmation (so if I was baptized, which I very likely was, I was also confirmed). I also read that converts from the Eastern Orthodox faith don’t need to be confirmed as Catholics… but I was confirmed (after being conditionally baptized).

What do you think? Thanks! 🙂
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I belive that the Orthodox do confirm at the time time of baptism.

In addition, the subject of conversion from the Orthodox Church was discussed in the following post:
I am upset…
Alot of good advice was goven on the subject.

PF
 
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Hermione:
They gave me conditional baptism because there’s no certificate/witnesses of my previous baptism. (So technically I could have been unbaptized and then therefore unconfirmed?)
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I guess if there were any chance you were unbaptized you would have been unconfirmed too–so if you were conditionally baptized they would have ‘conditionally’ confirmed you too? But if they did not confirm you (conditionally or not) this would imply that you were definitely already confirmed, and by extension definitely baptized.

In short, I think what they did makes sense. 👍
 
The Eastern Orthodox as well as the Eastern Catholics Confirm people immedietly after they have been baptized. In the Latin rite when an infinint is baptized, they are annointed with oil, but they are not confirmed until they are older, whereas in the East the chrisma that the infant recieves after they are baptized is confirmation, the priest seals the newly baptized with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Last night at the Easter Vigil; all of the adults who were baptized were confirmed immedietly afterwards, so they were not annointed twice, but only once.
 
Thanks everyone! 🙂

I was baptized conditionally; however, I was confirmed along with everybody else, so it was NOT conditional confirmation.

I told my RCIA priest beforehand that I was probably baptized and therefore confirmed in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and he said I would be baptized and confirmed conditionally. But the priest who was baptizing and confirming me apparently did not know this (I had to tell him right before that I needed conditional rather than regular baptism). Should I have mentioned this immediately before the Confirmation as well?

I feel pretty worried now because one-time sacraments like Confirmation should not be repeated!!! I hope I haven’t sinned by not doing everything possible to tell the priest confirming me.
 
Don’t worry about it, you put forth the effort to notify everyone.

My wife was an Eastern Catholic and know where you are coming from.
 
WELCOME HOME, to the largest, most diverse family of Christians you can imagine.

As a baptised, chrismated Orthodox Christian, all that is necessary to be united with Rome is to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation, receive Communion and to state your intention of becoming Catholic before a priest, and reciting the Nicene Creed – surprisingly, without the filioque.

It’s sad that in many places, an appreciation of the close relationship between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity is absent.

At any rate, if there was a doubt about your Orthodox baptism, the priest was correct in conditionally baptising you. He was probably incorrect in not conditionally confirming you. But it all resulted in your being fully, undoubtedly united in the Catholic Church with all the graces that entails. Don’t worry about it! REJOICE!

If you are of Orthodox heritage, you might want to explore the Eastern Catholic Churches. If you were baptized Orthodox, you are probably already technically a member of one or another of them already without even knowing it.
 
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Hermione:
I feel pretty worried now because one-time sacraments like Confirmation should not be repeated!!! I hope I haven’t sinned by not doing everything possible to tell the priest confirming me.
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Don’t feel too scrupulous about it. You are a child of God, you are blessed, enjoy the favor of the occasion. 🙂

It may interest you to know that according to the Orthodox, Chrismation is indeed considered a repeatable sacrament, and is used to welcome returning believers!
 
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Hermione:
Thanks for responding 🙂

I was thinking more about it… but could it be that the Confirmation was conditional because the baptism was?

They gave me conditional baptism because there’s no certificate/witnesses of my previous baptism. (So technically I could have been unbaptized and then therefore unconfirmed?)

Does this make sense?

Thanks!
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Then that changes my answer. Baptism in an Eastern Church should be documented. IF you are unable to obtain a Document from the Church of your Eastern Baptism I would agree that Conditional Baptism and Conditional Confirmation would have been Ok. Keeping in mind that I believe that if you come into the Catholic Church from an Orthodox Church you actually move into union with the Eastern Catholic Church that corresponds to the Orthodox Church you are leaving.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
Then that changes my answer. Baptism in an Eastern Church should be documented. IF you are unable to obtain a Document from the Church of your Eastern Baptism I would agree that Conditional Baptism and Conditional Confirmation would have been Ok. Keeping in mind that I believe that if you come into the Catholic Church from an Orthodox Church you actually move into union with the Eastern Catholic Church that corresponds to the Orthodox Church you are leaving.
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Thanks! (And thanks to everyone else who responded!) 🙂

My situation is somewhat unusual. I believe I was baptized at the insistence of my grandmother when I was a child. Neither of my parents is religious, so I was raised without any sort of spiritual beliefs.

I would not consider myself a former member of the Orthodox Church (although I suppose that I am officially), because I was not raised in the faith, I was inside an Orthodox Church 2 or 3 times when I was a small child under 10 and probably didn’t know what it was all about.

Furthermore, I was baptized in Russia and have since immigrated here. It would be somewhat difficult to contact the Orthodox church where I was baptized, so we never tried.

I was baptized conditionally, but confirmed normally with everyone else. I felt that I should say that I need conditional rather than regular confirmation, but there were 40 of us standing around the altar and the priest was moving pretty quickly, so I figured that since I had told the RCIA priest beforehand and he didn’t do anything special for me it was okay. Was it?

Do I need to be a member of the Eastern Catholic Church?

Thanks again!
 
At the Easter Vigil we had an Eastern Orthdox woman become a Latin Rite Catholic. I asked her why she didn’t just become an Eastern Rite Catholic, she told me that because her fiance is Latin Rite, it would just be easier.
 
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Hermione:
Thanks! (And thanks to everyone else who responded!) 🙂

My situation is somewhat unusual. I believe I was baptized at the insistence of my grandmother when I was a child. Neither of my parents is religious, so I was raised without any sort of spiritual beliefs.

I would not consider myself a former member of the Orthodox Church (although I suppose that I am officially), because I was not raised in the faith, I was inside an Orthodox Church 2 or 3 times when I was a small child under 10 and probably didn’t know what it was all about.

Furthermore, I was baptized in Russia and have since immigrated here. It would be somewhat difficult to contact the Orthodox church where I was baptized, so we never tried.

I was baptized conditionally, but confirmed normally with everyone else. I felt that I should say that I need conditional rather than regular confirmation, but there were 40 of us standing around the altar and the priest was moving pretty quickly, so I figured that since I had told the RCIA priest beforehand and he didn’t do anything special for me it was okay. Was it?

Do I need to be a member of the Eastern Catholic Church?

Thanks again!
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If you are Eastern by prior Baptism, then you are. However you may worship in and attend any Catholic Church near you. There would be no need to seek out a Russian Orthodox Church unless you wanted to.
 
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Hermione:
I felt that I should say that I need conditional rather than regular confirmation, but there were 40 of us standing around the altar and the priest was moving pretty quickly, so I figured that since I had told the RCIA priest beforehand and he didn’t do anything special for me it was okay. Was it?
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You are correct, the confirmation should have been conditional. Because if you had already been confirmed, then the confirmation ceremony that occured at Easter Vigil was not valid; instead, it was the simulation of a sacrament, which is gravely sinful. However, it seems that you tried your best to avoid this, so I don’t think you bear the responsibility.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
If you are Eastern by prior Baptism, then you are. However you may worship in and attend any Catholic Church near you. There would be no need to seek out a Russian Orthodox Church unless you wanted to.
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Absolutely – you are free to receive Communion and Reconciliation in any Church in Communion with the Holy Father 👍 – it would not be advisable to seek out any variety of Orthodox Church that is not in Communion with Rome.

BTW: it’s not uncommon for an Orthodox Church to refuse to provide a certificate of baptism for someone who has been baptized and wants the certification to ease their transition to the Catholic Church.
 
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kaygee:
BTW: it’s not uncommon for an Orthodox Church to refuse to provide a certificate of baptism for someone who has been baptized and wants the certification to ease their transition to the Catholic Church.
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This is what happened to me. The Orthodox priest did spend an hour on the phone with me trying to talk me out of it.

I ended up getting an affidavit from people who had attended my baptism and chrismation.
 
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Catholic2003:
You are correct, the confirmation should have been conditional. Because if you had already been confirmed, then the confirmation ceremony that occured at Easter Vigil was not valid; instead, it was the simulation of a sacrament, which is gravely sinful. However, it seems that you tried your best to avoid this, so I don’t think you bear the responsibility.
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This makes me feel so bad. It seems that it’s impossible to do things right.
 
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Hermione:
This makes me feel so bad. It seems that it’s impossible to do things right.
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Dear Hermione:

What was right is that you made a valid public proclamation of your relationship to the Body of Christ and received all the graces that come from that; please don’t let niggling doubts about the leagalisms of how it came about cloud your joy at this great event in your life. . . One way or another you have been baptized; you have been confirmed – you are a member of Christ – a member of the Church. Rejoice!!!

We catholics are free to breathe with both lungs of the Church – Eastern and Western – what a glorious mode of life!!! All of us Catholics need to learn about each other, and perhaps your distress about your situation is a call for you to learn more and testify to the great grace given to the church in her diversity.

Christ is Risen
Christos Anesti
Christos Voskrese
Christos Resurrexit
and to ages of ages. . .
Karen
 
The confirmation may have been conditional. It may be that the condition need not be uttered for it to be conditional. It may be enough for it to be the intent of the priest.

In any case, if anything bad happened it’s not your fault so nothing to stress over 🙂
 
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