Q: I’m afraid I have a mundane request. I was looking online for a simple answer to the question of why children of catechetical age receive all three sacraments of initiation in one ceremony, whereas children who are born Catholic wait to be confirmed and receive Communion, and I came across your excellent article on the subject. I was wondering: Would you mind improving the formatting so that those black question mark symbols no longer appear? Those symbols make it a little hard to read, so before I direct people to it, I thought I’d see if you would be willing …
Administering confirmation
Q: I’ll be receiving someone into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church at Mass on a Sunday in Ordinary Time. Do I wear green or red because I’m administering confirmation? == A: You wear green. RCIA 487 says that you celebrate the Mass of the day, so you take the presidential prayers, readings and vestment color of the Sunday. It’s a rare instance when you administer confirmation wearing green.
Confirmation
Q: I have Confirmation in the Parish next Sunday. Regretably the bishop cannot attend so I have delegation to confirm (which I view as an honour as much as I’d prefer the bishop to confirm). Recently, my view that candidates are for themselves now pro/claiming their Catholic faith, (a faith initially pronounced by parents/godparents), has been challenged. Kindly offer your view on what children are saying ‘yes’ to, if in fact this is what they are doing? Thankfully, the Readings for Trinity Sunday are providential as the context for conferring the Sacrament of Confirmation. Thanks and Blessings == A: I’ve …
Candles for CCD Confirmation
Q: Is there any indication in the books concerning the use of candles for CCD Confirmation? == A: No. Even at the Easter Vigil, candles are relighted after confirmation. There is a connection between baptism and confirmation, but it is primarily made through the renewal of promises rather than the lighting of candles.
Name for Confirmation
Q: I have a question about choosing a name for Confirmation. Where in the RCIA does it address this? I can only find something about choosing a name for baptism and nothing about confirmation. Last night at the Vigil, our deacon, pastor, and some on the RCIA team tried to convince me that our neophyte needed a confirmation name. I said no, that she can be confirmed in her baptismal name, which is what happened. == A: There is no confirmation name presumed in the Rite of Confirmation, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, the Code of Canon Law, …
Extending hands during confirmation
Q: Do priests concelebrating a confirmation Mass with the bishop extend their hands during the prayer of confirmation? == A: It appears that I never corrected this post from 2016, when I gave the wrong answer: https://paulturner.org/handlayings-at-confirmation/ . Only priests who will confirm some of the candidates extend their hands with the bishop. If the bishop is confirming alone, the priests do not participate in the prayer of confirmation, nor in the act of confirmation. Look at Order of Confirmation 8, 9, 24 and 25.
Order of Confirmation for teenagers
Q: In the Introduction to the Order of Confirmation, n. 11/1 says that an adult who has been baptized into the Catholic Church but has not yet received First Communion should receive both Confirmation and First Communion at the same Mass. Does that apply to teenagers too, who have passed the age of discretion? Thank you. == A: That paragraph refers to several different scenarios: * Unbaptized adult and child catechumens, who should receive all three initiation sacraments together. * Those in that category who were not confirmed—perhaps because someone other than a priest conducted the baptism—and who should then …
First Communion and Confirmation
Q: What are your thoughts on this situation? I have had teens who are Baptized Catholic, had left the church with their families after Baptism, but who have returned and been practicing the faith for several years who now need both First Communion and Confirmation. Their peers are in the Teen Confirmation program and they would like to participate in that program verses RCIA (OCIA) / Adult Confirmation. We have been allowing them to make that choice and we simply have them receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Communion prior to Confirmation with their peer group. Do you see …
Confirmation names
Q: If someone wants as their confirmation Saint “Virgen de Guadalupe ” what would you tell them? Have them change it to “Virgen Maria de Guadalupe” or “María” or is a title of our Lady acceptable for Confirmation as they asked about? == A: There are surprisingly no universal rules governing confirmation names because the custom is pretty much limited to the US. I would follow the lead of canon 855 that a baptismal name should not be “foreign to Christian sensibility.” In my view, Virgen de Guadalupe is acceptable. Many hispanic men and women are named “Guadalupe”, which isn’t …
Weekday confirmation mass
Q: During a weekday confirmation mass (ordinary time) do we usually skip the Gloria and Creed (reserved for feast and solemnities)? == A: The Confirmation Mass always has a Gloria—as long as the presidential prayers are from the Ritual Mass of Confirmation and not, say, the Third Sunday of Lent. It includes the creed only if it is a Sunday or solemnity. A Saturday late afternoon confirmation Mass in Ordinary Time, for example, would include the creed because the celebration replaces the usual liturgy for Sunday.