Confirmation Age

A reader writes:

I think it’s canon 891 and 883 or there abouts, also CCC 1307 that talks to the Sacrament of Confirmaion.

It’s canon 891 that determines the age under universal law. (Canon 883 deals with another matters, and the CCC is not a legal text and so does not establish legal requirements.)

Here is what canon 891 provides:

The sacrament of confirmation is to be
conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion unless the conference
of bishops has determined another age, or there is danger of death, or in the
judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise [SOURCE].

The reader asks:

Does the term "the age of discretion" as the reference point for receiving Confirmation mean that children should be confirmed at an early age (7 years old)?

Yes, as a general matter. (Compare CANON 11.)

How does that sync with many parish programs that have the child wait until a later age (teens in High School)?

See below.

Are they vaild programs?

Educational programs are not valid or invalid. I assume taht you mean: "Is it licit to administer the sacrament of confirmation to children only after they are in their teen years?" Yes, in the United States. See below.

 

Does the Church accually spell out a specific age for Confirmation?…in the Latin Rite?

No, it doesn’t.

The universal law of the Latin Church as found in the Code of Canon Law provides that the sacrament of confirmation, in general, be adminsitered at about the age of discretion, which is generally taken to be seven years old.

However, you will note that canon 891, quoted above, provides that the conference of bishops may determine a different age. In the United States, the conference of bishops has passed (and the Vatican has ratified) the following complementary norm:

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the
prescriptions of canon 891, hereby decrees that the Sacrament of
Confirmation in the Latin Rite shall be conferred between the age of
discretion and about sixteen years of age, within the limits determined
by the diocesan bishop and with regard for the legitimate exceptions
given in canon 891 [SOURCE].

So, presently in the United States, confirmation can be licitly administered at a wide variety of ages, dependent on the will of the diocesan bishop.

As an aside, it seems to me that this situation may not last. Given the current mobility of American society, folks move from one diocese to another all the time, making it very easy for individuals to "fall through the cracks" and not get confirmed. This creates a pastoral situation that may well be redressed by re-mandating a single age of confirmation at some point in the future.

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."

15 thoughts on “Confirmation Age”

  1. Well, whatever age they decide, they ought to make sure it always precedes First Communion, which was the universal practice of the Church from the time of the Apostles until just last century, when the Pope allowed First Communion to be moved back to the age of discretion but left the age of Confirmation unaddressed, resulting in First Communion around age 7 and Confirmation around age 12 (or even later).
    Also, in discussions of the age of Confirmation, this document must always be kept in mind:
    http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDWCONF.HTM
    Clearly, Rome wants baptised children to be deprived of the graces of Confirmation for as little time as possible — earlier is better.
    In fact, there’s no overpowering reason why we don’t just go back to the practice that has always been used in the Eastern Churches: grant Confirmation to babies as soon as they are baptised, and then admit them to Communion.

  2. In our diocese, children must be “catechized” for two full years before receiving confirmation. If they miss more than a handful of classes they will be denied the sacrament.

  3. In a Pastoral Letter, linked below, issued this past weekend, our bishop announced a change in the practice in the Diocese of Phoenix. Confirmation will normally be administered to children at the same Mass that they receive their First Communion, after the Homily. The practice had been to administer the Sacrament at age 16.
    He uses much of the reasoning mentioned above.
    http://www.diocesephoenix.org/catecheticalministry/Sacraments/Pastoral-conf-eng.pdf

  4. My diocese, Orange in California, has a two-year program for confirmation that starts with children in the 9th grade. My particular parish has instruction for children under the direction of the Life Teen/youth ministry director. I found the instruction program lacking, so I have pulled my daughter from it.
    Home instruction does not seem to be an option as each candidate must pass an oral interview with the pastor and the same Life Teen director. At this point I am going to wait a year and have my daughter go through the adult confirmation program – pending my investigation of that program’s orthodoxy.
    It is an interesting dilema – receiving the graces of the sacrament at the expense of questionable instruction, or not receiving said graces but not falling into possible heterodoxy (sp?)

  5. Interesting that 16 is the <> for age of Confirmation. Our Bishop prohibts Confirmation to anyone under 16.
    I have a friend who is young for his class — he will not turn 16 until the summer after Confirmation — and in order to receive Confirmation with his classmates, was advised to “fudge” about his age to the Diocese.
    I hope no one ever advises my child to lie to my Bishop! Yikes!
    Peace

  7. Until recently, I hadn’t heard that it is supposed to be the age of 7 (except for the exceptions). I always thought that you required a certain level of knowledge. In Canada it seems to happen most at the age of 12 (grade 7 CCD). But I find that because of poor catechesis, most of those grade 7’s know very little. My dad taught one grade 7 class briefly and they didn’t know what the trinity was.
    So is there a level of knowledge one needs? Even at the age of 7?

  8. Does anyone know why this practice (of teenage confirmation) began?
    I have my suspicions that it has to do with having “leverage” to require teens to take certain classes, but I could be wrong. I have heard that some of the material used in some dioceses is not exactly orthodox.

  9. I believe that the high age and excessive “educational” requirements for our diocese come from a misguided desire to retroactively teach these kids what their parents or schools have not, which has nothing to do with the sacrament.
    In my experience it has very limited success.

  10. Born in the Philippines in 1958, I was the beneficiary of what was ordinary custom that I guess to have been a holdover from missionary days. A few days after birth, I received Baptism in the parish church on a Saturday morning, and then I received Confirmation in the cathedral the same day in the afternoon. My mother tells me that for the Confirmation we just got in line with my fresh Baptismal certificate, showed it the Bishop, I received Confirmation on the spot from him, THEN we went to the sacristy to have the facts recorded paperwise.
    I don’t know if it’s still done that way there.

  11. I was confirmed in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in the 5th grade (11 years old), but it seems now the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Diocese of Covington, KY, where I live now, have moved it to the 8th grade (13-14 years old). I don’t remember hearing when they changed it, or why.

  12. “Does anyone know why this practice (of teenage confirmation) began? I have my suspicions that it has to do with having ‘leverage’ to require teens to take certain classes, but I could be wrong. I have heard that some of the material used in some dioceses is not exactly orthodox.”
    The Latin Rite’s practice of delaying Confirmation until teenage is hundreds of years old. I don’t know why, but in the Middle Ages they began to delay First Communion and Confirmation until age 12 — but at least they still had Confirmation precede First Communion. It’s only in the 1900s that we got First Communion moved to precede Confirmation.

  13. Knowledge is not necessary for receiving the sacrament of confirmation. Of course the person should roughly know and understand what happens (therefore the age of discretion) but the sacrament actually confirms (hence the name) what happened at baptism. It really belongs closely to baptism (although it is a sacrament of its own), but the understanding of it as we tend to have it nowadays, namely that a detailed catechesis has to preceed and that it is something like personal comittment to the church is wrong. Of course these things should be fostered and a life-long catechesis has to be provided (and sought) anyway, but it FUNDAMENTALLY DOES NOT BELONG TO THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION!!!!

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