Debate: Are we leaving Confirmation too late?

All this tinkering with tradition is regrettable and puts a wedge between one generation and the next. So no, let’s have the familiar order back, and with it a high mass with music, Latin, catechism, benediction and vespers.

I am not surprised that Archbishop Kelly has led this movement, and I am sure that others will follow.

I was taught that a child should receive Holy Communion as soon as he could distinguish the Body of Christ from ordinary bread, and, as I recall it, we were all so well catechised throughout our ‘junior’ school years, that we were usually ready by the age of 7 years. That does not seem to hold good in this age when our archbishops and bishops talk like Protestants about ‘participation in the Lord’s supper’ and I have consequently heard children of all ages refer to receiving, not the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, but ‘the holy bread’.

Later, we were taught that in the Sacrament of Confirmation we received the Holy Ghost in order that we might become ‘strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. We understood that this gave us the responsibility of ‘fighting’ for Christ, by trying to perfect our own lives and spreading and defending the faith. To me this clearly requires more chronological and spiritual maturity than that possessed by a 7 year old, and the age of abouot 14 years (at the end of the Catholic education of the majority of children) seems to be wholly appropriate.

This is an interesting debate, and one which we often have on CatholicYouthWork.com (sorry for the blatant plug – it seemed relevant!).

There are a lot of factors in the debate. Some more sensible than others. Here is a brief run through as I see it.

In term of the New Testament ‘correct order’ it is tempting to see Confirmation as coming first, but then the Last Supper came before Pentecost, didn’t it, so it can be argued the other way round too.

From what I have experienced, a lot of the arguments for having Confirmation later revolve around the fact that it keeps young people in Church a little longer. This is a poor (defeatest, even) way of looking at it. If those being confirmed are only being kept in the Church by the carrot of the sacrament, then they’re clearly not in a fit state to receive it anyway.

To our shame, we tend to think Confirmation should be used as a sort of coming of age ritual or as a scheme to engage young people in the life of the Church. Both of those may well be valid aims, but neither is what Confirmation is for.

I guess my concern is that we look at the lack of provision and engagement that there is for young people in the Church and we take the very Catholic (and altogether stupid) approach of taking something which has an element of obligation attached to it, or something which has certain advnatages attached to it and we tell ourselves that this thing will solve the problems.

It won’t.

To solve these problems, we need something new and radical. Or something old, some would say, pushed with a renewed vigour.

Confirmation is about one thing and one thing only, and that is Confirmation. I guess with that in mind we should administer it as soon as the young people are old enough to understand it properly, which is probably 12 or 13.

“So, should confirmation be conferred before Communion?”

Yes. However, BOTH should be performed later, at around 13/14. 7 or 8, or even 11 is too young for a proper understanding, in my view.

First, may I commend you for all the good work done with the Catholic youth and suggest that the timing of Confirmation will make no difference to the involvement of young people in the Church. I would also like to suggest, that during Confirmation, as with all the sacraments, candidates receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, whether they unpack that gift and use it is entirely different. Therefore, it seems that the age at which Confirmation is received makes little difference. Children receive the Eucharist at 7 or 8, yet many adults have little idea of what it means to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at Communion.

The greatest problem in our Church today is that once a young person leaves Catholic education (if they receive it in the first place), they will never receive any further instruction or teaching, except for a homily (if they attend Mass) unless they look for it themselves.

My personal faith journey (I received First Holy Communion and Confirmation by the age of 10 and attended Mass right through my teenage years and beyond) meant that I didn’t truly my relationship with Jesus Christ until the age of 47, and that came about through Charismatic Renewal where I first learned about ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’.

The Church needs a vehicle to provide young people and adults with a means to deepen their faith, deepen their understanding of the faith and deepen their personal relation through Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Light. There is some provided in Charismatic circles but sometimes the vibrant forms of worship put people off. The Church, possibly through enlightened lay leaders, must respond to this need, so that when young Catolic leave the fold, be it education or the Church, they still have some means of communication or contact that may eventally draw them back to a spiritual life.