Traditional Confirmation

[TimothyH]

I was conmfirmed at 44 years of age after having recieved first communion/reconcilliation as a child and was required to sit ten classes lasting two hours each. I was not required to sit through the entire RICA program but would have done it if it was God’s will for me as communicated through His Church.

As to the confirmation itslef, arn’t we all beggars? Who are we to be choosy about the type of confirmation? After all the sins of my past and the amazing things God has done for me, I wouldn’t have cared if the Bishop had delegated the task to some recently ordained priest who could barely speak english and if it was done in a garbage dump. That’s about all I really deserved anyway.

I really think God is going to call us to account some day for our snobbery. There are people celebrating the sacraments in basements for fear of the being arrested and we complain that the priest didn’t hold his hand the right way or that the church wasn’t the right shape or that they didn’t have the right flavor of incense.

The confirmation is the confirmation. I figure I’m good as long as the sacrament is valid. We forget that everyting else in this world is temporary and a gift. Next thing you know people will want the Bishop to hold the crism oil in a bottle with a certain shape. Get over it. The memory of your confirmation is goint to fade and eventually it will be nothing more than a check box on the back of your baptism certificate which is stored in a file box in a closet somewhere. Say thank you to God for the mercy of his sacraments and move on toward heaven.

-Tim-

 

[JReducation]

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be confirmed using the older rite, as someone has already said.

That being said, it is wrong to be confirmed illegally. That is not a mere technicality. It is what it is, a breach of law. If we consider ourselves to be law-abiding Catholics, then we must abide by Church law. The law says that only a bishop with faculties or his delegate may confirm.

This is very important. Even a bishop in good standing with the Church cannot confirm, if he does not have permission to do so. Let’s get away from the SSPX for a moment. Let’s talk about Bishop John Doe. Bishop Doe is retired, living in his condo on some warm sunny beach in Florida. His grandnephew wants him to confirm him in the Dioceseo of Toronto. Bishop Doe cannot just get up and do this. He must have permission from the diocesan bishop of Toronto to do so. Why? Because Bishop Doe has no canonical place in that diocese.

Now we can go back to the SSPX. The same rules that apply to retired Bishop Doe also apply the the SSPX bishops. If you do not have a canonical status in a diocese, any sacramental or liturgical activity that you perform in that diocese, contrary to the wishes of that Diocesan Bishop are illegal. Therefore, they are illicit. You need the permission of the Diocesan Bishop to minister in his jurisdiction, unless you’re a religious and are functioning in a chapel or oratory beloging to your religious order. Even then, there are certain sacraments that cannot be celebrated in the chapels and oratories of religious houses: confirmation, baptism, ordinations and weddings . . . without the permission of the local bishop. Even confessions have restrictions.

In this case, the person would live out the rest of his or her life knowing that his or her confirmation was illegal. That is seriuos.

If we obey traffic laws, because it’s the safe thing to do, it is even more important to our safety to obey Church laws and Papal decrees. Until the Holy Father decrees that the Bishops of the SSPX have a canonical place in the Church, which then allows the local bishops the freedom to grant them faculties in their dioceses, at the discretion of the local bishop, there is not much that we can do to change it.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[dconklin]

The Archbishop performed the confirmation and you’d think since he was there it would have been much more reverent. He had on a wireless mic and sang along to every bad song. electric bass, drums, big strummed guitars…It was like watching an awful Baptist concert on The Bible Network. I still feel like they should have took a vote during the planning stages of the event asking all of us that were to be confirmed what we would prefer. I guess I would have settled for a more conservative NO mass.

A vote? HA! You must have the Church confused with a democracy.

 

[JReducation]

Does anyone know of any non-SSPX parishes that offer this traditional confirmation?

Because confirmation is properly the sacrament of the bishop, no parish has the authority to offer the celebration of the sacrament of Confirmation in either form. That would be up to the local bishop to decide. Even if the parish were an FSSP parish or a parish adminstered by the Franciscans of the Immacualte, who have regular EF masses, they cannot dictate what ritual will be used for confirmation. When the date is set for the confirmation, the Bishop’s secretary will inform the pastor which ritual he will use.

Does a priest have to get special permission from a bishop to give a traditional pre-Vatican II confirmation?
Thank you.

A priest can only confirm at the Easter Vigil and that is with certain restrictions. Normally he only confirms those who are entering the Church, not those who are already Catholic. In some dioceses the bishops will allow the presider at the Easter Vigil to confirm older Catholics. But that is his call to make.

As to the form, that is the pastor’s call to make. The pastor usually presides at the Easter Vigil. If it’s a religious community, the pastor may defer to his superior, if the superior is a priest and if the superior is present. In either case, the presider decides what form of the mass he will use, not the bishop. SP only said that the diocesan clergy were free to use the EF. It does not say that they must use the EF or that the bishop can impose it on them. We have to be very gentle here so as not to raise expectations and trigger disappointments.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[joanofarc2008]

At the end of the day the best thing to do is to pray and then ask your pastor for guidance on the matter while expressing your wishes for a more traditional mass. Be willing to compromise and leave the rest in the hands of the Holy Spirit. You may be surprised where God leaves you in this beautiful Sacrament of the Holy Spirit once you take down the walls of wants and desires and open yourself to Obedience of His Will. God bless you and good luck.

 

[Thomas_Casey]

Please be very careful in your suggestions. Read the sticky “Please Read Before You Post” and scroll down to # 6

In this forum then this means that while members are free to discuss the SSPX, adherents to that group are not allowed to proselytize for the SSPX, especially to members who have come to CAF searching for information about the Catholic Church. As a rule of thumb, discussion entails talking about a topic and expressing one’s opinion; proselytism entails encouraging others to join a non-Catholic religion or an irregular Catholic group. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. God bless.