since our diocese until recently had no officially approved Confirmation program, and until recently the bishops did not issue any guidelines on high school texts, I was on my own when I took this DRE job 4 years ago. I began with Confirming Faith by Ave Maria Press because these were the manuals and student workbooks I found in the office, so I assumed they okay. The trouble is this program relies heavily on mentors or sponsors, which were not forthcoming in this parish.
We struggled for a few years but this year we have an excellent team of catechists and a high school text which is excellent, which we are using for the second year. It is Introduction to Catholicism by the Midwest Theological Forum. There are 4 books in this series, intended for Catholic High Schools, and if I were a school principal I wouldn’t even bother to look at the competition.
Confirmation in this diocese is age 16, and requires a minimum of 6 candidate/parent/sponsor sessions, a retreat and a service component.
This parish is one of the strictest. We require that the candidate have been attending CCD regularly for at least two years. The 9th & 10th grade curriculum is broken into blocks which must be completed concurrently with the candidate/sponsor sessions, keyed to the Catechism and the layout of the textbook: The Creed, Sacraments and Liturgy, Moral Life in Christ, and Christian Prayer and Spirituality. Each of these blocks ends with a mini-retreat or day of recollection.
The actual Confirmation preparation component at the candidate sponsor sessions uses the pamphlet “Getting Confirmed” by Liguori, which is approved by the diocese. We cover this in the first session. The remaining sessions are based on a resource I found from Ignatius Press: Sacrament of Confirmation, which comes with a 4-part video by Bishop Wuerl, a catechist guide, and a student guide. It works well with 4 session (2 hrs each) or an all day retreat. These are on Sunday afternoons during the year. With these resources we cover the Church, Sacraments of Initiation, The Rite of Confirmation, and Discipleship.
Our Confirmation retreat or “Spirit Day” focuses on the Holy Spirit, based on scripture and the catechism. If we could get parents to chaperone this would be an overnight, which is mandated by the diocese, but I just have not been able to get the help up until now. This is held at the nearby Campus Ministry Center, and we have priests from a nearby charismatic parish help with the presentations.
Another part of our program is optional small faith-sharing groups (about half the candidates participate). This is an outgrowth of 2 years ago, when we found ourselves with only a couple of adult catechists. We trained the previous year’s confirmandi, who were eager to help, as small group facilitators with a lectionary based resource. It was very successful, and we made up with doctrinal content by having a few sessions with our pastor presenting key topics.
I guage our success by the fact that at least half the confirmands return the following year either as volunteer catechists elsewhere in the program, in other parish ministries, or as small group leaders for our discipleship and evangelization program (small but growing). Some also participate in adult ed, apologetics and bible studies. We have had a smaller confirmation class each year, because the requirements have become stricter (including dress code) but a higher percentage of confirmands return and remain active in parish programs and RE.
Also students who dropped out a few years ago are returning as seniors or college students to rejoin a Confirmation program. We have a satellite program on the nearby college campus, since many go to school there. We use the same materials and format, modified for adult needs, for adult Confirmation programs.
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