Should Confirmation happen Before First Communion

[jps23430]

Recently, Bishop Aquila of Fargo discussed having the children in his diocese receive first penance in second grade and then being confirmed and receive the Eucharist in Third grade at the same mass. After reading his reasons, I found myself agreeing and wondered what other people thought about this. Here are some of his reasons

“The view that confirmation is a way for young people to make a personal commitment to their faith “distorts” the sacrament”

“Confirmation is not marked by a choice to believe or not believe in the Catholic faith. Rather as disciples we are chosen by God to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, to be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit generously bestowed by God, and we are called to cooperate with that grace,”

"In this light, it appears “odd” to have someone participate in the Eucharistic life of the Church if he or she has not received “the seal of the Holy Spirit which perfects the personal bond with the community.”

“If they are mature enough to receive the Eucharist, the crown of the sacraments, are they not mature enough to receive a sacrament that is ordered to it?”

Any thoughts?

 

[Oneofthewomen]

In my diocese we call this “restored order”. It is my understanding that this is how it was done for nearly 1800 years, and that things only changed during the reign of Pius X.

Here it is up to the individual pastor how his particular parish celebrates the sacraments.
I would say about 80% do it in what most consider the “traditional” way with First Penance & First Commuion in the fall & spring, respectively, of the 2nd grade year and Confirmation sometime between grades 6-10.
The other 20% have a 2 year prep program that one can start as young as the first grade, with Confirmation & First Communion celebrated in the spring of the 2nd grade year.

My only problem with this is the inconsitency, IMHO it should be a decision made by the Ordinary for the whole diocese.
I work in our Cathedral, where most of our Confirmations are held,
and sometimes we may have more than one parish at a time.
It can be difficult when half the kids are freshman in high school and the other half are barely 8 or 9 years old.

 

[jps23430]

I definitely agree with Bishop Aguila that there is a false idea about Confirmation that it is a reaffirmation of faith to the church for young people. Where I grew up in NJ, the citizens were very largely either Catholic or Jewish. Confirmation up there was all too often associated with bar mitzvahs in that it was an entry into adulthood in the faith. This is clearly wrong and not what it is about.

 

[YoungTradCath]

I don’t really think it makes any difference in the soul of an individual. That said, it wouldn’t matter to me if it was changed.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

I definitely agree with Bishop Aguila that there is a false idea about Confirmation that it is a reaffirmation of faith to the church for young people. Where I grew up in NJ, the citizens were very largely either Catholic or Jewish. Confirmation up there was all too often associated with bar mitzvahs in that it was an entry into adulthood in the faith. This is clearly wrong and not what it is about.

I agree 1000%!

 

[JerrySeibert]

The disagreement happens when those in position to make the decisions feel it is finishing your faith journey. I teach 8th Grade CCD and prepare young men and women for confirmation. It is a Sacrament and like all Sacraments it is not finishing anything. It is carrying on what Jesus did for the Apostles.
Yes Baptism once, our Creed says this
Yes First Communion once… then Communion when possible while attending Mass.

It is thought Confirmation is the peak or summit of our faith journey. If you are on top of something you either fall backward, or your fall forward, which is also down. I think Confirmation is a gift, it is when God gives us the power to help build our faith further…or stop religious education as it seems most decide. A time of doubt or second guessing is only human…it happened to Thomas and he personally knew Jesus the man.

 

[jps23430]

The disagreement happens when those in position to make the decisions feel it is finishing your faith journey. I teach 8th Grade CCD and prepare young men and women for confirmation. It is a Sacrament and like all Sacraments it is not finishing anything. It is carrying on what Jesus did for the Apostles.
Yes Baptism once, our Creed says this
Yes First Communion once… then Communion when possible while attending Mass.

It is thought Confirmation is the peak or summit of our faith journey. If you are on top of something you either fall backward, or your fall forward, which is also down. I think Confirmation is a gift, it is when God gives us the power to help build our faith further…or stop religious education as it seems most decide. A time of doubt or second guessing is only human…it happened to Thomas and he personally knew Jesus the man.

YES!! you bring up another excellent point. Because of when young people now receive their confirmation (13,14) it is viewed as the culmination and end of their catechesis. Very few continue CCD and many stop attending Mass afterward. Of course a lot of this falls to their parents who don’t provide a good example, ( I teach 3rd grade CCD, and more than half the parents skip church and just come at the end to drop the kids off at CCD— save that for another thread cause I could go on and on about that) but it doesn’t help when we put up an artificial “Finish Line.”

 

[George_Stegmeir]

I was away from the Church for many years. When I fell away, in the early 1960’s, everything was still in Latin. I returned to the Church in 2003, and have simply accepted all the changes that have been done since that time. However, there are a few things that puzzle me. One of them is this discussion.
I was confirmed by the Archbishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida at the age of 12 in 1948. At that time, 12 years old was the minimum age for Confirmation in the US and the rite could be performed only by a Bishop or his superior.
Since coming back to the Church, I have heard of priests performing the Rite of Confirmation and children younger that 12 being confirmed.
Wha hoppened, and who and when was it authorized, or is it like much of the '70’s when local priests seemed to go into business for themselves-just like the protestants?

 

[jps23430]

I was away from the Church for many years. When I fell away, in the early 1960’s, everything was still in Latin. I returned to the Church in 2003, and have simply accepted all the changes that have been done since that time. However, there are a few things that puzzle me. One of them is this discussion.
I was confirmed by the Archbishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida at the age of 12 in 1948. At that time, 12 years old was the minimum age for Confirmation in the US and the rite could be performed only by a Bishop or his superior.
Since coming back to the Church, I have heard of priests performing the Rite of Confirmation and children younger that 12 being confirmed.
Wha hoppened, and who and when was it authorized, or is it like much of the '70’s when local priests seemed to go into business for themselves-just like the protestants?

I won’t argue with you about how it was when you were confirmed, but the practice of confirming children at a minimum age of 12 is a relatively new thing in the life of the church. The view that Bishop Aguila is advocating is the way it was done for the majority of history, it wasn’t until 1932 that official permission was given to change the order of the sacraments to allow Confirmation after First Eucharist

 

[YoungTradCath]

I was away from the Church for many years. When I fell away, in the early 1960’s, everything was still in Latin. I returned to the Church in 2003, and have simply accepted all the changes that have been done since that time. However, there are a few things that puzzle me. One of them is this discussion.
I was confirmed by the Archbishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida at the age of 12 in 1948. At that time, 12 years old was the minimum age for Confirmation in the US and the rite could be performed only by a Bishop or his superior.
Since coming back to the Church, I have heard of priests performing the Rite of Confirmation and children younger that 12 being confirmed.
Wha hoppened, and who and when was it authorized, or is it like much of the '70’s when local priests seemed to go into business for themselves-just like the protestants?

Well, a bishop may allow a priest to confirm. But it almost never happens with your run-of-the-mill common teenage confirmations. Generally, the only time priests confirm is when adults converts are confirmed. This is because most converts are brought into the Church all on one day, the Easter Vigil, and it would be impossible for the bishop to go to every parish to confirm in one night. Converts can be brought into the Church anytime, but it’s general custom to do it on the Easter Vigil. Excellency can’t be in 150 parishes at once.

 

[beth40n2]

I know in some Eastern churches they do confirmation at right after baptism to infant with the idea that the sacrament will strenghten the person’s faith as they grow, then they do First Penance and First Holy Communion around 2nd grade.

In my diocese the priests do their own thing based on their schedule. On large church in a town I work does confirmation in 11th grade. A lot of priests who have 3 churches do confirmation every 3 years in a parish. My church wont have confirmation until next year and the kids in confirmation will be 9th/10th/11th grade. The kids do seem to disapear after confirmation and do not attend CCD any longer and many seldom go to mass. The think the sacrament is a graduation fromt he faith, instead of a new strengthened faith.

 

[friendster324]

I am surprised no Eastern Catholic has commented on how they do it (because it’s waaay better than how us Romans do it).

I think having all three sacraments of initiation at birth is how it should be done. At the very least the restored order should be done. As has been stated before, how is it that we receive the Eucharist, the fullness of our faith, but save Confirmation for later? So you’re fully a member but not really…

As a DRE, I struggle with this because I deal with it everyday. The order we do our sacraments is completely out of whack. But I am obedient to the bishop and go with the directives of our diocese.

 

[karebear92]

Well, we don’t really know why we do Confirmation; not that it isn’t important because it is, but because we have gotten away from the original ritual, we truly have lost the purpose of that particular sacrament. One of the major reasons is that in the early church almost nobody was baptized until they were adults, in which case they received all three at the same time. Also, when you think about how we baptize, it is completely different, thank goodness, from the original way (I am not for stripping down naked, being covered in oil, going into a dark area where I have no clue what is going on and being submerged in water three times…but hey, I guess I would do it for Christ. Also, in a way, we baptize babies and then excommunicate them for seven years…it’s kind of funny when you break it down literally. I think that is why Orthodox give infants communion at baptism.

 

[Phemie]

I was away from the Church for many years. When I fell away, in the early 1960’s, everything was still in Latin. I returned to the Church in 2003, and have simply accepted all the changes that have been done since that time. However, there are a few things that puzzle me. One of them is this discussion.
I was confirmed by the Archbishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida at the age of 12 in 1948. At that time, 12 years old was the minimum age for Confirmation in the US and the rite could be performed only by a Bishop or his superior.
Since coming back to the Church, I have heard of priests performing the Rite of Confirmation and children younger that 12 being confirmed.
Wha hoppened, and who and when was it authorized, or is it like much of the '70’s when local priests seemed to go into business for themselves-just like the protestants?

I was confirmed in 1961, I was 7. That was the traditional age in my diocese: we received our First Communion at the end of grade 1 and then were confirmed whenever the bishop came to the parish (usually that was every two years).

Priests, by law, confirm infants they are baptizing in danger of death as well as adults they receive into full Communion with the Catholic Church or Baptize. ‘Adult’ in this case refers to anyone over the age of reason.

The Bishop usually confirms anyone who was baptized Catholic as an infant and is confirmed after the age of reason but he may delegate that to the Pastor, particularly in situations where someone is ready for confirmation and is ill when the bishop comes to impose the sacrament or, in the case of one child I remember, when the parents had a trip to England booked and paid for before the Confirmation date was set.

Until 1910, people were confirmed before they received their first Communion. That was from anytime around the age of 12 to late adulthood. Pius X decreed that children could receive Communion at the age of reason, usually defined as around the age of 7. Once that happened, Confirmation got displaced to after Communion. In recent years there has been a movement to restore the order of the sacraments of initiation. Our diocese did it and for 9 years our kids were confirmed and then received their First Communion in the same celebration.

Then, a few years ago, our diocese was suppressed and the compromise the Bishop made when we were absorbed by a diocese that celebrated confirmation in grade 10 was to decree that from then on Confirmation would be any time between grade 6 and grade 10.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Definitely it should be Baptism, then Confirmation, the Communion. Its the traditional order. Even when done on the same day in the same Rite, its the order it is done. In fact in the East, baptized children under 7 won’t be given Communion if they are not confirmed/chrismated.

 

[midori]

Honestly, I teach Jr. High religious ed, and even of the ones I’ve had for three years straight, my kids are pretty ignorant. (“So, name the four gospels…” “Um… Jesus?” “Peter?” “So, do Catholics believe that the host becomes the Body of Christ, or is it just symbolic?” “Symbol!”) The faith is such a miniscule part of their lives that nothing ever really sticks, because they don’t pay attention, they don’t live it, they don’t care about it, and their family doesn’t reinforce it, either. They’re great kids, and a bunch of them are altar servers, but they couldn’t find a psalm if you asked them to, let alone tell you where we say them every Sunday during the Mass…

Pretty much all the kids enrolled in religious ed are only there so they can be eligible for their sacraments. There are no adult classes, or post-confirmation classes aimed at teens. And I remember out of my own confirmation class of 25+, there were only two of us who stuck around for the next year’s religious ed, until it got canceled due to lack of interest.

So in an ideal world, it would be cool if you could Confirm a child earlier in life. But practically speaking, I know the students in my parish, at least, are nowhere near ready, even at 6th/7th/8th grade, and that Confirming them earlier in their religious lives would probably end up bringing them more harm than good.

 

[Phemie]

Honestly, I teach Jr. High religious ed, and even of the ones I’ve had for three years straight, my kids are pretty ignorant. (“So, name the four gospels…” “Um… Jesus?” “Peter?” “So, do Catholics believe that the host becomes the Body of Christ, or is it just symbolic?” “Symbol!”) The faith is such a miniscule part of their lives that nothing ever really sticks, because they don’t pay attention, they don’t live it, they don’t care about it, and their family doesn’t reinforce it, either. They’re great kids, and a bunch of them are altar servers, but they couldn’t find a psalm if you asked them to, let alone tell you where we say them every Sunday during the Mass…

Pretty much all the kids enrolled in religious ed are only there so they can be eligible for their sacraments. There are no adult classes, or post-confirmation classes aimed at teens. And I remember out of my own confirmation class of 25+, there were only two of us who stuck around for the next year’s religious ed, until it got canceled due to lack of interest.

So in an ideal world, it would be cool if you could Confirm a child earlier in life. But practically speaking, I know the students in my parish, at least, are nowhere near ready, even at 6th/7th/8th grade, and that Confirming them earlier in their religious lives would probably end up bringing them more harm than good.

What does it take to be ‘ready’? They can be confirmed as hours old babies if they’re in danger of dying – what readiness was there? They are confirmed to provide them with the strength the Holy Spirit can provide. That doesn’t change as they grow up. Note that in the same condition the priest can’t give them Communion.

It’s not fair to withhold the sacrament from them so that you can keep them in CCD until high school. They need the graces of the sacrament long before they reach that age.

 

[midori]

What does it take to be ‘ready’? They can be confirmed as hours old babies if they’re in danger of dying – what readiness was there? They are confirmed to provide them with the strength the Holy Spirit can provide. That doesn’t change as they grow up. Note that in the same condition the priest can’t give them Communion.

It’s not fair to withhold the sacrament from them so that you can keep them in CCD until high school. They need the graces of the sacrament long before they reach that age.

Oh, sure-- I know that our Eastern brethren chrismate babies right after Baptism, and then they receive the Eucharist-- one, two, three sacraments of Initiation all in the same ceremony. So there’s obviously no prerequisite of reason, or of being knowledgeable about your own faith, in order to reap the spiritual benefits.

But if the graces received through Confirmation are to help us live our Christian lives boldly, and to perfect our Baptismal bonds, it’s kind of depressing when they’re clueless about the sacraments that they’ve already received or the Christian living that they already go through the motions on— not intellectually being able to understand what they’re affirming every time they go to Communion, or going so many years between Confessions that they couldn’t tell you the steps, and so on. For them, Mass and the Sacraments, just like CCD, are motions that they go through to make their parents happy, but there’s no particular interest or mental/emotional involvement/investment at the personal level.

I’d be perfectly happy if we didn’t offer CCD at all, and I could get my evenings back and take care of my own family and obligations. Parents have the first obligation in bringing their children up in the faith, but that’s neglected way too much, so you rely on the charity of volunteers to pick up their slack and do their best and hope that something sticks. Maybe if I sat and read Sacramentum Caritatis, I’d get a different perspective, but right now, I don’t think it’s too unreasonable (in the Western church) to wish that a candidate for Confirmation actually understood what it was they’re applying for, understood a little about their faith, and understood their Christian responsibilities.

 

[Phemie]

I’d be perfectly happy if we didn’t offer CCD at all, and I could get my evenings back and take care of my own family and obligations. Parents have the first obligation in bringing their children up in the faith, but that’s neglected way too much, so you rely on the charity of volunteers to pick up their slack and do their best and hope that something sticks. Maybe if I sat and read Sacramentum Caritatis, I’d get a different perspective, but right now, I don’t think it’s too unreasonable (in the Western church) to wish that a candidate for Confirmation actually understood what it was they’re applying for, understood a little about their faith, and understood their Christian responsibilities.

The thing is, they may never understand but they are still, as baptized Catholics, required to be confirmed.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I’ve taught CCD or lead a youth group for more than 20 years. I hear ya on the cluelessness of Jr high kids. But holding confirmation hostage until they are ‘ready’ isn’t the solution.

Confirmation confirms us in the gifts of the Holy Spirirt. Who needs ‘perserverance’ and ‘wisdom’ more than teenagers? By placing the sacraments back in the restored order, we give kids the strength of the spirit before they become jaded and bored by life.

Helping parents see how important the faith is and encouraging them to go to Mass every week and avail themselves of the sacraments, is a whole 'nother issue that needs serious prayer!

Honestly, I teach Jr. High religious ed, and even of the ones I’ve had for three years straight, my kids are pretty ignorant. (“So, name the four gospels…” “Um… Jesus?” “Peter?” “So, do Catholics believe that the host becomes the Body of Christ, or is it just symbolic?” “Symbol!”) The faith is such a miniscule part of their lives that nothing ever really sticks, because they don’t pay attention, they don’t live it, they don’t care about it, and their family doesn’t reinforce it, either. They’re great kids, and a bunch of them are altar servers, but they couldn’t find a psalm if you asked them to, let alone tell you where we say them every Sunday during the Mass…

Pretty much all the kids enrolled in religious ed are only there so they can be eligible for their sacraments. There are no adult classes, or post-confirmation classes aimed at teens. And I remember out of my own confirmation class of 25+, there were only two of us who stuck around for the next year’s religious ed, until it got canceled due to lack of interest.

So in an ideal world, it would be cool if you could Confirm a child earlier in life. But practically speaking, I know the students in my parish, at least, are nowhere near ready, even at 6th/7th/8th grade, and that Confirming them earlier in their religious lives would probably end up bringing them more harm than good.