Valid Confirmation and Confirmation sponsors? (appreciate answer from a priest, forum member answers welcomed)

[vanessabyrne]

I read a thread where someone asked if their Confirmation was valid. They said their sponsor couldn’t make it so their mother stood in. They also said that Canon Law says a parent can’t the sponsor.
I’m asking because at Confirmations in my family our parents have been sponsors. For my Confirmation my father was my sponsor and for two of my brother’s Confirmations (at separate times) my mother was their sponsors. They weren’t “stand in sponsors” though, we asked them before. I asked my father and my brother’s asked our mother.
I never knew of this before now, and I’m sure known of us did. A lot of people have parent’s for sponsors so I suppose it isn’t as well known as it should be.
I made my Confirmation a few years ago. One of my brother’s made them this year (2013)
Are all our Confirmations true, real, official and valid in the Catholic Church? Are we truly confirmed? Did we sin or do wrong?
Would appreciate a priest’s answer on this, bishop if possible. Forum members welcome to answer.
God Bless

 

[1ke]

Sponsor or lack of sponsor or illicit sponsor has no bearing on the validity of confirmation.

You are validly confirmed.

 

[devoutchristian]

I read a thread where someone asked if their Confirmation was valid. They said their sponsor couldn’t make it so their mother stood in. They also said that Canon Law says a parent can’t the sponsor.
I’m asking because at Confirmations in my family our parents have been sponsors. For my Confirmation my father was my sponsor and for two of my brother’s Confirmations (at separate times) my mother was their sponsors. They weren’t “stand in sponsors” though, we asked them before. I asked my father and my brother’s asked our mother.
I never knew of this before now, and I’m sure known of us did. A lot of people have parent’s for sponsors so I suppose it isn’t as well known as it should be.
I made my Confirmation a few years ago. One of my brother’s made them this year (2013)
Are all our Confirmations true, real, official and valid in the Catholic Church? Are we truly confirmed? Did we sin or do wrong?
Would appreciate a priest’s answer on this, bishop if possible. Forum members welcome to answer.
God Bless

Your Confirmations were valid and you were not responsible for what you didn’t know. I would advise however, reporting this illicit practice to the bishop (or if he was involved, to the canonical courts).

 

[Joe_Kelley]

The pertinent canon laws are:

Can. 892 Insofar as possible, there is to be a sponsor for the person to be confirmed; the sponsor is to take care that the confirmed person behaves as a true witness of Christ and faithfully fulfills the obligations inherent in this sacrament.
Can. 893 §1. To perform the function of sponsor, a person must fulfill the conditions mentioned in ⇒ can. 874.
§2. It is desirable to choose as sponsor the one who undertook the same function in baptism.

Can. 874 §1. To be permitted to take on the function of sponsor a person must:
1/ be designated by the one to be baptized, by the parents or the person who takes their place, or in their absence by the pastor or minister and have the aptitude and intention of fulfilling this function;
2/ have completed the sixteenth year of age, unless the diocesan bishop has established another age, or the pastor or minister has granted an exception for a just cause;
3/ be a Catholic who has been confirmed and has already received the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist and who leads a life of faith in keeping with the function to be taken on;
4/ not be bound by any canonical penalty legitimately imposed or declared;
5/ not be the father or mother of the one to be baptized.

Note that:

1. a parent cannot be a sponsor, 874.1
2. a sponsor is not essential to the validity of the sacrament. 892

 

[Phemie]

The pertinent canon laws are:

Note that:

1. a parent cannot be a sponsor, 874.1
2. a sponsor is not essential to the validity of the sacrament. 892

The Canadian rite says that if there is no sponsor parents can “present” their child for the sacrament. No sponsor is then recorded.