Q: I ran across a wrinkle that has me (canonically) curious regarding Sacraments of Initiation received at the Easter Vigil. It seems highly problematic to my current understanding – which maybe you both can enlighten.
RCIA (soon to be OCIA) no. 226 states that if there is a great number to be baptized [the bracketed ‘exceptions’], they may be divided into groups and baptized by assisting priests or deacons….
Then, no. 232 states when there are a great many persons to be confirmed, the minister of confirmation may associate priests with himself as minister of the sacrament (see no. 14).
So, according to OCIA, a priest pastor can have a deacon baptize and then obviously the pastor (not the deacon) confirms. However, by universal law (see cc. 882-883) for the Sacrament of Confirmation, the “presbyter who by virtue of office or mandate of the diocesan bishop BAPTIZES one who is no longer an infant or admits one already baptized into the full communion of the Catholic Church.”
The Archdiocese of NY, for example, states:
It is not permissible at one celebration for one priest to baptize and another to confirm. The faculty to confirm is only granted to the one who baptizes. For the same reason, it is not permissible for a deacon to baptize and a priest to confirm. If there are a large number to be confirmed, the presiding minister may invite other priests to assist him in the anointing (RCIA no. 14).
RCIA Office of Adult Faith Formation – Archdiocese of New York
So … IS there an update in the new OCIA/RCIA ritual book (available November for March 5, 2025) that clarifies this seeming legal contradiction of allowing a deacon (or a separate concelebrant) to “baptize” and then the priest to Confirm (when, like NY, there is universal law that the priest has faculties to Confirm one whom he baptizes)?
Or … do you have further information that can clarify please?
Just FYI … I noticed that the no. 14 I was referencing is Congregation for Divine Worship (Prot. No. 15/72)/Christian Initiation General Introduction in the front of the RCIA ritual book…. The no. 14 of USCCB “Introduction” eliminates deacons but clarifies desired priests (which still may have a ‘separation’ of newly baptized receiving Confirmation from a presbyter who did not baptize).
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A: The present English translation of RCIA 226 is faithful to the Latin. A baptizing priest may associate with himself other priests or deacons to baptize a large number of people.
However, the present English translation of RCIA 232 omits a key phrase from the Latin, which describes the priests who may be thus associated: qui ad hoc munus designari valent. This phrase has been included in the revised translation, indicating that the confirming priest may only associate with him other priests who have been designated for this role. That implies canonical permission for them to confirm in this situation.
Regarding RCIA 14, which comes from the body of the book, not the General Introduction, there is another mistranslation. Just before the sub-numbers 1 and 2, it says “It is preferable that the priests who are so invited…” But the Latin says Necesse est. It is necessary that they have this faculty. This too will be fixed in OCIA 14.