Priest didn't say all the words at confirmation

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thyrodandstaff

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thyrodandstaff

The priest didn’t pronounce all the words at my confirmation. He did so for the other people being confirmed at the time but when he came to me, he stumbled with the words and skipped a little bit that he said for the others. Was I validly confirmed?
 
I believe it was valid as long as he was ordained and that was the intention.
 
All sacraments are considered valid until proven invalid. If it’s a concern for you, contact your diocese’s chancery and explain your concern in detail (ie: what words were missed, etc). They’re the ones who can make that decision. If need be you can receive a conditional confirmation.
 
There are times when the form, ie: the words and rite definitely matter. That was proven with the hundreds,maybe thousands of invalid baptisms performed at a church in Australia some years ago. They substituted the words, creator, redeemer and sanctifier for Father Son and Holy Ghost. Everyone so baptized had to be re baptized using the proper formula. I am not sure if that extends to confirmations as well, but it might be worth looking into.

If anyone is interested in seeing how far things can go wrong in these areas pm me and I will give you the name and website of the parish which has I believe been shut down due to the rampant abuses and experimentation that took place there. They now say that they are in exile incidentally. I won t post the name as I believe it is prohibited to do so,
 
To me it doesn’t sound like he intentionally changed the words, but stumbled. Not unexpected when repeating the same thing over and over.

If the intent is there, and he’s properly ordained, I wouldn’t sweat it. Sometimes these things can happen. He’s human too after all. The confirmation will be recorded on the baptismal registry, and the Church will never question the validity.

The Australian baptism case was an intentional messing with the sacrament, a big no-no! That’s different from human error.

I’ll always remember Vigils at the monastery one year. I asked my spiritual director: “why did Fr. X take the reading from year I instead of year II at Vigils this morning?”

“Because Fr. X made a mistake” was the response. No need to elaborate more than that!
 
Congratulations on your Confirmation!! Look at it this way you’ll never forget it, due to the minor imperfection.😉
 
From memory, the only words that are required to be said at a confirmation are ‘be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit’ - as long as this was said you’re OK. It may be that similar words will also be sufficient.
 
Well, I am not complaining, it has had a great deal of meaning for me since that day. Since I was a bit nervous at the time I can’t remember the exact words that weren’t pronounced only that he left out part of it. On the other hand I may have been so nervous that I wasn’t sure exactly what went on. I just wonder what the Holy Spirit would think. I know that the Spirit ensures the efficacy of the sacraments in cases of a priest who is a sinner, is it the same case when there are minor errors in the execution of the sacraments?

Oh, wait, I do remember something. I remember that it wasn’t the part where he put the chrism to the forehead, but before that.
 
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