When does the Catholic Church say we should receive the sacrament of confirmation?

[paulguy]

The bishop of the Archdiocese of Denver wants the Sacrament of Confirmation to be included with the First Holy Communion. My parish priest believes Confirmation is a Sacrament of choice and maturity. I am a religion teacher and want to make sure I teach the students the correct Catholic Church position on this matter. I do know the Eastern Church grants all three Sacraments of Initiation together when the recipient is a baby. Please help to understand.

ppaulguy

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Code of Canon Law:

Can. 891 The sacrament of confirmation is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion unless the conference of bishops has determined another age, or there is danger of death, or in the judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise.

USCCB:

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the prescriptions of canon 891, hereby decrees that the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Latin Rite shall be conferred between the age of discretion and about sixteen years of age, within the limits determined by the diocesan bishop and with regard for the legitimate exceptions given in canon 891.

The “age of discretion” is traditionally understood as being around the age of 7 (canon 97 §2).

Its not entirely accurate to describe the sacrament of confirmation as a sacrament of choice or maturity. For starters the sacrament is administered to infants in the Eastern Catholic Churches. The sacrament is about receiving the fulness of the Holy Spirit and the accompanying gifts of the Holy Spirit. These graces are spiritually beneficial well before one reaches “maturity.” As the Catechism notes: “Although Confirmation is sometimes called the ‘sacrament of Christian maturity,’ we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need ‘ratification’ to become effective.” (1308)

The general idea behind delaying the sacrament of confirmation until the teenage years has been to help individuals be better educated in the faith. The fear has been Catholics won’t receive enough of education in their faith, religious education for confirmation becomes the main youth education program. The shortcomings of this has been that the sacrament is seen as a kind of graduation or a completion of a series of hoops that have to be jumped through.

The Church allows wide discretion to Bishops for the age of confirmation. Local custom and tradition that are popular and “work” are given preference. In the USA the sacrament has usually been delayed until High School but some dioceses have started to lower the age and believe it has been successful. Other dioceses have had success in delaying until some point in High School.

There is apparently no one size fits all answer to the question of at what age to administer confirmation. The focus should always been on the graces received in the sacrament and how they help us to live out of baptismal vocation.