Sacraments of Initiation

[jmcrae]

I wanted to edit the previous post but time ran out.

Bishop Aquila of Fargo ND restored the order to baptism first, confirmation second and then Eucharist. This was done in early 2012 and he was praised for it by the Pope. Reference catholicnewsagency.com/news/bishop-aquila-receives-popes-praise-for-reordering-sacraments/

-Tim-

There is definitely a movement in that direction. From what I understand, our local Bishop is happy with the current custom of Confirmation for children in the sixth grade, and I haven’t heard anything about moving it to a lower grade.

 

[Phemie]

There is definitely a movement in that direction. From what I understand, our local Bishop is happy with the current custom of Confirmation for children in the sixth grade, and I haven’t heard anything about moving it to a lower grade.

For 9 years our diocese conferred Confirmation in grade 2, along with First Communion. Part way through those 9 years our bishop was made bishop of a second diocese, one which conferred Confirmation in grade 10. Eventually our diocese was suppressed, with the territory split between 3 other dioceses. We were merged with the diocese our bishop already had, which was renamed to recognize our vast territory. The bishop then split the difference by allowing Confirmation to be conferred at any time between grades 6 and 10.

Having taught the preparation for the 7-8 year olds and having attended the preparation for my then 11th grader, I can guarantee that the younger students were much better disposed to receive this sacrament that the older ones and I think we lost out big time with the placement of Confirmation at a later date. In fact, there has been no Confirmation since then, first because all the children in grade 6 had already been confirmed, then simply because no one got around to preparing the kids.

This year our new Pastor has started a class, which he’s teaching himself. He has set no date for Confirmation yet, and is quite content to keep the preparation going until he feels at least part of the class is ready. When he was appointed 18 months ago he was appalled to learn that there has been no ongoing catechesis in our parish since the Catholic school system was abolished in 1998.