Q. Today I got a call from a parish that would like to do the Rite of Reception into Full Communion with a candidate outside of mass and not include the celebration of Confirmation. The choice of the parish is to celebrate Confirmation and Eucharist with this individual at the Easter Vigil. From all I have read today; doing it this way is not preferred. What are your thoughts?
A. A priest who receives a person into the church is obliged to confirm in the same ceremony. The appropriate canons are 883 and 885. The first says in section 2 that a priest has the faculty to confirm “one already baptized whom he admits into the full communion of the Catholic Church.” And 885/2 says “A presbyter who has this faculty must use it for those in whose favor the faculty was granted.”