Tom of Disputations has a sharp post up: a rough-draft taxonomy of factions within the Church, based on which Sacrament they reject. He remarks that Confirmation is “rejected by pretty much everyone, since almost no one has any idea what it’s actually for.”
Well, I would dispute that. I am all for Confirmation (even though I’m don’t have a complete understanding of what it’s for. But I do have some idea.) So, does that mean I get my own faction? And if I do, what should I call it?
I first blogged about Confirmation in a combination “faith seeking understanding” and “resentful Gen-X rant” post last fall. I’ve had the question of Confirmation on my mental back burner ever since. It’s something I want (and need) to study more, both to understand the Sacrament and to grow in understanding of the Holy Spirit and His actions.
I was thinking about it again more recently when I started hearing about the “Restored Order of the Sacraments” in the Latin Rite (that is, Confirmation before First Communion instead of adolescence or even later.) I saw it first on a Catholic mother’s message board and then in this post on Fidelis.
Don’t feel like slogging through the long meandering (recycled) reflection in the extended entry? Here’s the executive summary: I think the Restored Order is a great idea. After the revolution, when I become Liturgist-in-Chief (complete with draconian powers of enforcement), I will implement it from east to west. While I wait for news of my appointment, I’ll be studying up on Confirmation and learning more about the Holy Spirit, and striving to grow in devotion to Him.
Back in September, I wrote,
I wonder if there’s something amiss with the way we’re approaching Confirmation in this country. (I’m speaking primarily of Confirmation of children who were baptized as infants or little children and raised in the Faith.) It seems like a lot of people approach it as “the time you make your adult committment to Christ.” Well, what does that mean? To me, that kind of approach seems to on some level belittle the actions of Baptism, and seems to be heavily influenced by the idea of the bar mitzvah or the way some Protestant churches approach Baptism. Is that why some kids resist Confirmation — because they are doubting, and they don’t want to commit themselves? (And yet how many of those same kids are receiving Holy Communion on Sundays?) Would they desire the sacrament if there was more emphasis on the very real graces of the sacrament, that it was the beginning of a lifelong journey instead of Signing on the Dotted Line for Life?
More recently, on the Mothering with Grace message board, a mom ran into the Restored Order for the first time and expressed doubt about it, seeing it as some kind of newfangled “Spirit of Vatican II” innovation:
My response:
My grandmother was confirmed when she was six or seven, on her First Communion day, but I don’t know which Sacrament was given first. This would have been in the mid to late 1920’s in New York.
I believe that in the Eastern Catholic Churches (e.g., the Byzantine Church) they do confirm infants immediately after their Baptism. (In these Churches, infants and little children also receive Communion.)
I did a little searching and I’m finding a lot that suggests that this is a good idea. I had been thinking for a while myself that perhaps it’s not such a bad thing to confirm earlier, that this waiting until the kids have a driver’s license deprives them of the gifts of the Holy Spirit at the time they need them the most, that Confirmation was getting treated like a bar mitzvah or something, and that’s not what it is.
From the Catechism:1306 Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of Confirmation. Since Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist form a unity, it follows that “the faithful are Obliged to receive this sacrament at the appropriate time,” for without Confirmation and Eucharist, Baptism is certainly valid and efficacious, but Christian initiation remains incomplete.
1307 The Latin tradition gives “the age of discretion” as the reference point for receiving Confirmation. But in danger of death children should be confirmed even if they have
not yet attained the age of discretion.
1308 Although Confirmation is sometimes called he “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. St. Thomas reminds us of this:
Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood man can attain spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: “For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years.” Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood.”From a theological standpoint the sacrament of confirmation should ideally precede first Communion, and indeed all official documents, from canon law to the Catechism, place confirmation before the Eucharist.
In a very real way, participation in the Eucharistic celebration is only fully complete after having received the sacrament of confirmation.
The sacramental character of the latter, according to the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a further participation in Christ’s priesthood and a spiritual power ordained to certain sacred actions with the difference that in baptism the Christian receives the power of testifying his faith by receiving the other sacraments whereas in confirmation he receives the power of publicly confessing his faith (“Summa Theologiae” III q 63 a. 3; q 72 a. 5-6).
Although the Church shows a clear preference for having confirmation precede first Communion — and this was a fairly common practice even up to recent times as first Communion was often received at a later age — it does permit the delay for solid pastoral reasons.
If this delay is extended for a long period it can create a confusion regarding the exact nature of the sacrament. This may lead us to forget the essential point that we are dealing primarily with a sacrament, that is, a source of grace, and only secondarily a sign of coming of age or a taking up of adult responsibilities.
Thus with confirmation, as St. Thomas said, we “receive a power of testifying the faith.” And the Council of Florence states that “it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and to be never ashamed of the Cross” (see Catechism, No. 1302).
It is in this sense that confirmation is the sacrament of Christian maturity, not so much a sign that one has already reached maturity, as the gift of grace to help one mature as a Christian.A few years ago, an 11 year old girl in New York (homeschooled!) asked for Confirmation but was refused, as the Diocese policy was that the age of Confirmation was the sophomore year of high school (which raises the question — if you flunk math and have to repeat a grade, does that mean you have to wait to be Confirmed?) Anyway, her parents appealed to Rome, and the Congregation of Divine Worship ruled in the girl’s favor; in their decision they noted, “Indeed, the longer the conferral of the Sacrament is delayed after the age of reason, the greater will be the number of candidates who are prepared for its reception but are deprived of its grace for a considerable period of time.”
…The Catechism of Pope Pius X recommends the age of seven for the reception of Confirmation. Apparently confirmation before FHC was also retained in Spanish-speaking countries. Some historians point out that children used to receive Confirmation and FHC later, like at age ten or twelve; when St Pius X recommended that First Holy Communion come earlier, many places moved FHC to an earlier age but didn’t move Confirmation. So having Confirmation after FHC is not necessarily an old practice; it may have gotten started fairly recently.
Some old practices get started for reasons of expediency. Ever hear that old story about the newly married man watching his bride making a pot roast? She cuts the ends off the roast and puts it in the pan. He asks, “Why did you cut the ends off?” and she says, “Well, that’s how my mom taught me to make the pot roast.” So he asks her mom and she says the same thing. Finally Thanksgiving rolls around and he asks Grandma, “So why do you cut the ends off the pot roast?” Grandma laughs and says, “When my daughter was growing up I only had a little pot. I had to cut the ends off to make it fit.”
Same thing with Confirmation. I would bet that a big part of the reason Confirmation started going later in this country is because of the scheduling difficulties for the bishops. And another big reason is the view of Confirmation as a kind of “graduation” or Catholic bar-mitzvah, or like the idea some Protestants have of baptism (“adult commitment to Christ”) They are keeping Confirmation back as a way to keep the kids in CCD longer.
The very last sentence of the last blockquote is the key to why Confirmation isn’t getting reformed. Although this sacrament shouldn’t have to be held hostage for religious ed, it in fact _is_, and until there’s an alternative solution for that one a lot of pastors will plant their heels.
It is the _primary_ responsibility of the _parents_ to educate their children in the faith, but as we all know, a lot of them do not, at least not beyond “Now I lay me down to sleep…” And it is the duty of the pastor to see to the religious education of all the Catholic children in his parish, including children of the lackadaisical, the Christmas&Easters, and the carried-in/baptised-married-buried. When I was growing up, during the Council, Confirmation was generally in fifth grade, and unless the child was a pious nerd or the parents were very seriously Catholic, religious ed stopped at fifth grade also, and a good half of Catholics lived their entire adult life on a fifth-grader’s understanding of the Faith. So Confirmation kept getting pushed farther and farther into adolescence, simply to keep Catholic kids in religious ed longer —- so adult Catholics would have a 10th or 11th grade faith understanding instead of a fourth or fifth grade one. But this is an unworthy reason to keep delaying an _initiation_ sacrament, and it also means that some teens go to college still not confirmed — one of my parishes is on the Marquette U campus, and every year has dozens of freshmen and sophomores in college as confirmation candidates, because they left town before their hometown parish got around to it. How many more are missed entirely in receiving those graces because the distractions of life get them and they don’t turn themselves in once they are away from home?
So — how do we get our Catholic children to accept religious education, with or without their parents’ cooperation, without holding Confirmation captive for it? Solve that one, and confirming six and seven year olds will have no trouble following.
karen marie
They did Confirmation in the spring of seventh grade at my Catholic school, at least from the late 70s into the early 90s. It was my impression that all the schools and CCD programs in the area did it then, but I don’t know if that’s accurate. I was not yet twelve at the time. Unfortunately, I didn’t believe what I’d been taught in religion class, but went through with it because I didn’t want the school “authorities” to give me any trouble.
The teacher I had for various 7th grade subjects including religion claimed that in Confirmation you received the Holy Spirit but if you committed a mortal sin afterward you could never have the Holy Spirit again. ?? Or that’s what I thought she said, but she was very strange and if it’s totally off base I wouldn’t assume I misheard. I guess I don’t know enough about Confirmation and what it means to “receive the Holy Spirit” to know if that’s true in some sense, but it sounds wrong.
I received confirmation at age 23. I refused to be confirmed in junior high because I had no idea what I believed. My mother (the Anglican!) was pushing me hard for it, because I was “supposed” to be confirmed. But I dug in my heels and told her that I wasn’t going to lie to God.
I am so thankful I was a stubborn 13-year-old.
I have to say I’m torn about the “when” of Confirmation. First off, if it is an “initiation” scarament, I don’t think anyone under the age of 16 should be receiving it, unless dying or extremely intelligent, well-educated in the faith or pious.
I’ve helped with Confirmation classes since my own Confirmation classes(yes, I took classes with the 12- to 16- year-olds), and most of those kids don’t want to be there. Another big chunk are clueless about their faith, and I mean clueless. Their parents and school teachers have taught them nothing.
Most of the kids in these classes go to Catholic school, and most of them did not know that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. Most had been told by a parent or teacher that the Eucharist is a symbol.
On the other hand, Confirmation has become an “initiation” sacrament, but that was never its purpose until maybe 100 years ago. It was supposed to bestow upon a child the fruits and graces of the Holy Spirit _before_ he or she was ready to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist. It was like a preparation.
And it certainly isn’t the last time a person will receive the Holy Spirit in a sacrament. Couples formally receive Him during the Sacrament of Marriage, and priests and deacons receive Him in Holy Orders.
(Sorry that was so long, but this is one of my pet peeves in the modern Church, the way we’ve abondoned our teenagers, and expect 12 weeks of Confirmation classes to teach them what they need to know about God (especially the HS) when their parents and teachers have taught them fuzzy lies and heresy all their lives. Grrrrr.)
…if it is an “initiation” scarament, I don’t think anyone under the age of 16 should be receiving it, unless dying or extremely intelligent, well-educated in the faith or pious.
But Cin, what about Baptism? Denying “initiation” sacraments till driver’s license age would completely rule out the baptism of infants and children. Would you support moving the age of First Holy Communion, then, as well?
how do we get our Catholic children to accept religious education, with or without their parents’ cooperation, without holding Confirmation captive for it?
The $10,000 question… Unfortunately, as you’ve pointed out, Karen Marie, holding Confirmation “captive” doesn’t seem to be a terribly effective strategy either. You can wave Confirmation as a carrot, but if they’re not interested or have learned from home that CCD is not to be taken seriously, or if they drop out, they’ll either stare out the window during class until they get their Confirmation stamp or they’ll drop out and never get Confirmed at all. And that’s assuming that the CCD curriculum is sound and there’s something there to learn, which hasn’t always been the case….
I’m looking forward to the press releases when Peony Moss is named Liturgist-in-Chief. I’m with you on the restoration of order. Confirmation leaves that indelible mark on your soul. We need as many of those as we can (okay, we’re limited in the number) to bring us closer to God.
A religious sister recently gave a reflection in which she discussed her recent interviews with Confirmation candidates. She said to them, you go to drivers ed classes, learn about driving a car, and practice driving a car. So, when you get your license, does that mean you’ll never drive again? Then she applied it to participation in the Church and in the liturgical life once one is baptized and encouraged them heartily in the realities to which their reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation points.
OVer at Dei
Gratia there is a post and a poll on this topic. (May 28).
I put my opinions in his comments box.
However, I want to add that the delay meant that 4 of my children left the church unconfirmed. I can’t help but wonder if the graces of the Sacrament would have helped them to stay Catholic. My sons both dropped out halfway through the 2 year (I kid you not) confirmation program at our southern california parish – both for essentially the same reasons. They were there to learn seriously about the faith and to try to decide if this was worth lifing for and if needed, dying for. They wanted serious teaching, not fuzzy god loves you no matter what junk. They were seriously annoyed by the attitudes of most of the kids in the classes who were basically there because the families were culturally Catholic and they would get a big party and lots of gifts at confirmation. My boys went to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, one of them sang in the choir until his voice changed, we were active in the parish in many ministries, but when they started High school (which was the earliest age they could get enrolled in Confirmation Prep) they wanted to hear about the faith from adults other than mom and dad. And what they heard turned them off, not on, to it. You don’t even have to send kids to ‘catholic’ college to chase them out of the faith. Sending them to a ‘Catholic’ high school (or high school based program) might be enough.
Actually, I could rant for days on this one.
My one (to date) confirmed child went through a one year program that was very intense. It was home based (classes were held in small groups on 6-8 teens in a teacher’s home), CCC based, grounded in prayer and the Sacraments, required them to think and act, not just feel, and was bracketed by weekend retreats that were not just christian slumber parties. The small groups met weekly, and every couple of months there were also meetings of the entire class of nearly 100 kids. The sponsors were also required to be involved in the process. This daughter took the confirmation name of Thomas Aquinas….she is nearly 22, liiving on her own going to college, and attends Mass and the Sacraments regularly. She is trying to convert her boyfriend ( a Unitarian agnostic) – pray for them!
My 15 y/o just finished year one of a 2 year confirmation prep. I have been disappointed in some of the process, but what is happening is that a very orthodox DRE inherited a program in process at the beginning of last year and is working hard to make improvements. We shall see.
My other two girls never even started confirmation prep because by the time they got to High school they had decided that religion was all bogus – although I think my eldest may be reconsidering things after watching her friend go through RCIA and get married. But she is a victim of poor catechesis and a mom (me) who thought that sending her to CCD and taking her to Mass was enough. I just didn’t know.