Should a Teenager be Made/Forced to be Confirmed

[kage_ar]

and I must say that her parents are good Catholics - just because they don’t agree with everything the Pope or the Church says does not make them “Bad” Catholics. They attend church and do all that they can and they do encourage their daughter. .

Kids see through hypocrites. One cannot encourage your child in the faith and tell them the the Church is wrong at the same time. The kid will reject that faith faster than you can say boo if they do not see their parents and other adults they respect LIVING the Faith.

As parents, as adults, we are given some pretty stern warnings in Scipture about our duty to children. Jesus said if we lead a child away that we would be better never to have been born, that we should have a huge rock tied about our neck and be thrown into the sea! No “you can be a good Catholic and tell your kids that the Church is wrong” in that passage.

I would strongly suggest that you buy a copy of “Converting the Baptized”, that you read it and share it with her parents. That you all work on building your own faith, learning your own faith and sharing it with this impressionable child for whom you are responsible before God.

 

[ryecroft]

Only the candidate can present themselves for confirmation, together with their sponsor and the priest who is vouching for them.

If they did not want to present themselves, of course they cannot be “made” to do so. However, yes, I would tell them the should be doing so and have an obligation to do so. Does this same child present herself for Communion every week? If so, then why is she wanting to refuse the sacramental grace fo Confirmation?

It’s your job to help teach her and guide her to understand what the sacrament of confirmation is, and it isn’t a “confirming” that she wants to be Catholic. She *needs *the grace of the sacrament. We all do. Help her see that. Don’t take a “you don’t have to if you don’t want to” approach.

Yes. They should.

Because the sacramental grace of Confirmation is a transforming grace. If they are minimally in a state of grace they will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and that is very POWERFUL. Why do you want to encourage your Godchild to stay away from GRACE? If she is as you describe, she needs it desperately.

No, that is not why. As has already been pointed out a Catholic **obligated **to be confirmed just as they are obligated to receive the Eucharist (minimally during Easter Season) and Reconciliation.

So placing it at the age of reason is not so they can “decide” if they want to be confirmed but so they can more fully appreciate what they are receiving.

Keep explaining it to her in terms of the grace she will receive to strengthen her relationship with Christ. Do not make it about a decision to be Catholic, which it isn’t.

1319 A candidate for Confirmation who has attained the age of reason must profess the faith, be in the state of grace, have the intention of receiving the sacrament, and be prepared to assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ, both within the ecclesial community and in temporal affairs.

In other words, the person must WANT (have the intention) to receive the sacrement - and it also says that they are supposed to be ready to take their role of the “disciple” and witness of and to Christ. To me, and please, others tell me if I’m completely off here, but tell me if that doesn’t sound like you’re REQUIRED to make a decision that you WANT to profess and believe in the faith as well as be willing to prosetylize . This isn’t a decision that to me sounds like it is to be made lightly or to be forced or coerced on anyone.

You say that this sacrement is not a “confirming” of being Catholic - by what I’ve quoted, it does sound like they are kind of “confirming” their faith by getting confirmed because it says that they should then be ready to “assume the role of disciple and witness to Christ…” - I don’t think that any of the disciples would have been considered disciples if they had been saying that they didn’t agree with what was being taught. It does sound like the person is going from one part of Catholicism to another. I just canm’t agree with what you s ay -,

God Bless
Rye
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