Priest Confirmations

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These questions are about the Roman Rite.

Do priests always have to confirm at the time they baptise adults?

Other than emergencies and on the Easter Vigil do priests need permission from the local bishop to confirm? I ask this because this past Saturday Vigil an adult was confirmed at a Mass I attended.

Thanks
 
It really all depends.

My former Bishop gave “blanket” permission for his Pastors to be able to receive someone into the Church as they saw fit. Non-baptised always went through RCIA, but if it was an adult Catholic who was never Confirmed or a a Baptised Christian coming from a different faith, the Pastor did what he saw fit.

Our new Bishop grants permission on a “case by case” basis.

This is a case of trust your priest, they usually know what they are doing.
 
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The ability to do it exists in the priesthood. Permission to exercise that power may be restricted by the Ordinary.

Some give blanket permissions, others want the priest to request it each time.

And, anyone (not just adults) over the age of reason should be confirmed and communicated at the same Mass when they are baptized. That would be around seven years of age.

Deacon Christopher
 
Can. 883 The following possess the faculty of administering confirmation by the law itself:

1/ within the boundaries of their jurisdiction, those who are equivalent in law to a diocesan bishop;

2/ as regards the person in question, the presbyter who by virtue of office or mandate of the diocesan bishop baptizes one who is no longer an infant or admits one already baptized into the full communion of the Catholic Church;

3/ as regards those who are in danger of death, the pastor or indeed any presbyter.
 
Preists don’t always confirm at the same time as they baptize adults. I was baptised in September did first reconciliation in October November was first communion and I am still waiting for confirmation. I’m also waiting for confirmation class for me to start
 
Brendea said:
Preists don’t always confirm at the same time as they baptize adults. I was baptised in September did first reconciliation in October November was first communion and I am still waiting for confirmation. I’m also waiting for confirmation class for me to start
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I really don’t understand why they would do this. It makes no sense to make you wait.
 
And a according to responses in this thread (thanks all for responding) adults and others over the age of reason should be confirmed at the same time they are baptized.
 
This doesn’t make sense. If you were never Baptised, you should have gone through RCIA, been Baptized, Confirmed and received Communion all at the same time.
Are you in the US?
Is this how your diocese handles all adult converts?
 
I’m in newzealand small rural parish
The principal for the Catholic school is still waiting for confirmation class as well
 
I don’t actually think our parish gets many adult converts as I had to attend classes at the school i think they are set up for children comming through from the school
 
Yeah that’s not how it should be. Adults should be baptized, confirmed and communed together - as a single rite of initiation.
 
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Priests require the permission of their bishop to baptise adults. In general, if they are baptising an adult they would usually confirm the adult.

It is the choice of each diocesan bishop as to how this is done. In some dioceses each case may require the bishop’s permission. In others, the diocesan bishop in the pagella of faculties he gives his priests may give them authority to baptise and confirm adults.

Some diocesan bishops may grant the faculty to only the parochus, i.e. the parish priest (called pastor in some countries). In some the faculty is granted to all the priests serving in parishes.
 
Our previous bishop gave permission on a case by case basis. I recall two or three instances where kids who’d prepared for Confirmation couldn’t be there on the day, either because of international travel booked before the date for the Confirmation was set or they were actually moving away before the bishop’s visit.

There was also one instance, during the time that our diocese was still celebrating Confirmation around age 7 in the same celebration as the children received their First Communion, when he gave his permission for two teens who’d somehow fallen through the cracks in previous years to be confirmed at the Easter Vigil.

OTOH, I’ve also seen a mom, who’d somehow missed Confirmation when a child/teen, be confirmed by the bishop at the same Confirmation ceremony in which that sacrament was conferred on her daughter.
 
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Diaconia said:
The ability to do it exists in the priesthood. Permission to exercise that power may be restricted by the Ordinary.
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I would say it this way: the ability to do it exists in the power of presbyteral orders. The law restricts the ability. The bishop may relax that restriction.

Dan
 
So if a priest confirmed somebody without the bishop’s permission would it be valid but illicit or would it be invalid?
 
Angannas said:
So if a priest confirmed somebody without the bishop’s permission would it be valid but illicit or would it be invalid?
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Not necessarily either one, since the law doesn’t totally restrict the priest’s ability to confirm. Generally, I think one can safely conclude that if a priest confirmed somebody, he was permitted to do so.

Dan
 
acanonlawyer said:
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Diaconia:
The ability to do it exists in the priesthood. Permission to exercise that power may be restricted by the Ordinary.
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I would say it this way: the ability to do it exists in the power of presbyteral orders. The law restricts the ability. The bishop may relax that restriction.

Dan
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Isn’t that what the other poster said, just with slightly different words?
 
acanonlawyer said:
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OldCAFMember:
Isn’t that what the other poster said, just with slightly different words?
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Not really, because it’s law itself that restricts, not the bishop (“Ordinary”).

Dan
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So since the law gives the priest who baptizes an adult or receives one into full communion the faculty to also confirm them, can the bishop licitly insist that Confirmation be delayed until he is available to confer it?
 
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