Getting Confirmation About Confirmation

A correspondent writes:

I came into the Church as a convert at the Easter Vigil in 2002. I found out last night that my Confirmation sponsor was never himself Confirmed. While he has a certificate of baptism that has the word "Catholic"; on it, the church at which he was baptized was probably not in full communion with Rome, and so there is some question about whether my sponsor was even Catholic. Does this affect the validity of my own Confirmation?

My sponsor also told me that the priest, who is also the diocesan canon lawyer, told him that the validity of my Confirmation is not affected. However, while I have trusted my sponsor implicitly in the past, the fact that he failed to tell me that he might not be eligible to be my sponsor because he was not Confirmed himself has really shook me up.

I sympathize with your situation. However, your priest is correct that your sponsor’s lack of qualifications do not affect the validity of your confirmation. Here’s what the Code of Canon Law says:

Insofar as possible, there is to be a sponsor for the person to be confirmed; the sponsor is to take care that the confirmed person behaves as a true witness of Christ and faithfully fulfills the obligations inherent in this sacrament [Can. 892].

Note that the canon says "Insofar as possible, there is to be a sponsor." Thus even the complete absence of a sponsor does not affect the validity of a confirmation. The presence of a sponsor simply is not required for the sacrament to be valid.

Hope this sets your mind at rest!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

One thought on “Getting Confirmation About Confirmation”

  1. It cannot conclusively be determined, from your e-mail, whether your sponsor was confirmed. Instead of jumping to conclusions and being judgmental, have you tried asking him (her) directly? The baptism certificate means nothing. In the Roman Church, baptism is normally conferred at infancy, while confirmation comes several years later, when the person is 9 to 13 years old. Thus, a Roman Catholic baptism certificate would not refer to confirmation at all. In the Byzantine Catholic church, which is in full communion with Rome, baptism and confirmation are generally conferred at the same time, even in the case of infants.

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