Franciscan at Home

“¿Hace esto seguido?”, me preguntaron la otra noche. “Unas setenta veces por año,” contesté para asombro de mi interlocutor. El tema de la plática fue el Sacramento de la Confirmación. De hecho, en cualquier año, puede haber más de cien Confirmaciones en toda la Diócesis. Estoy agradecido con Mons. Daniel Cronin, Arzobispo Emérito de Hartford, quien me ayuda generosamente en confirmar a lo largo y ancho del Condado de Fairfield. También reitero mis gracias para con el Obispo Mons. William McCormick y con el recién fallecido Obispo Mons. Daniel Hart, así como con un gran número de sacerdotes quienes han administrado la Confirmación en la Diócesis de Bridgeport, a lo largo de los años.

Qué gozo y privilegio es compartir este sacramento tan grande con tantos jóvenes. Al nivel meramente social, la Confirmación es una oportunidad para visitar con nuestros hermanos sacerdotes, diáconos y dirigentes laicales. También me permite estar con un gran número de parroquianos y visitantes. Al entrar en las iglesias llenas con tanta gente – papás, abuelos, padrinos, y amistades – me encuentro en la compañía de muchos que están buscando lo mejor para los jóvenes a quienes estoy por confirmar.

Es también para mí una oportunidad para compartir el Evangelio no solo con los confirmandi (del Latín “los que están por confirmarse”), sino con los que ya han sido confirmados, tal vez hace muchos años. Después de la Misa y de la Confirmación, visito con los recién confirmados y con sus papás y padrinos. En esas ocasiones, los jóvenes me piden que bendiga algunos objetos religiosos y me dicen (al preguntarles yo) si le van a los Mets, los Yanquis, los Red Sox, u algún otro equipo deportivo. Muchos me cuentan de sus escuelas o de algún talento especial en música, drama o deportes. A menudo piden mis oraciones para algún ser querido enfermo y moribundo o por alguna otra intención especial. De vez en cuando, los fieles me recuerdan de algún intercambio de correspondencia, elogian a sus sacerdotes o me hacen alguna pregunta – todo con las cámaras sacando fotos sin parar. ¡Es caos organizado, pero es divertido!

La Confirmación también me da la oportunidad para dar las gracias a los directores de la educación religiosa, los directores de escuela, los catequistas, ministros juveniles y otras personas que trabajan con tanta diligencia para formar a nuestros jóvenes en la fe y en las verdades y valores que fluyen de la fe. La suya no es tarea fácil. Somos bendecidos con gente joven maravillosa, talentosa e idealista. Sin embargo, éstos jóvenes suelen llevar vidas extremadamente ocupadas, a menudo con poco tiempo dedicado para la educación religiosa y la misa dominical. Qué nos guste o no, a más y más temprana edad, también enfrentan mucha presión para involucrarse en comportamientos destructivos como el sexo prematrimonial, el consumo de alcohol, y droga ilícita. Estos comportamientos son contrarios tanto al Evangelio como al buen sentido común. Nuestros catequistas y ministros juveniles aprenden y abrazan la fe para superar estas amenazas a su amistad con Dios y a su dignidad, y para mantenerlos en un camino de integridad y discipulado.

“You do this often?” I was asked the other night. “About 70 times a year,” I replied to the astonishment of my interlocutor. The subject of the conversation was the Sacrament of Confirmation. Actually, in any given year, there may well be in excess of a hundred Confirmations across the Diocese. I am grateful to Archbishop Daniel Cronin, Archbishop Emeritus of Hartford, who generously assists me in confirming throughout the Fairfield County. I also remain grateful to Bishop William McCormick and to the late Bishop Daniel Hart, as well as to a number of priests, who have administered Confirmation in the Diocese of Bridgeport, through the years.

And what a joy and privilege it is to share such a great sacrament with so many young people. At the purely social level, Confirmation provides an opportunity to visit with brother priests, deacons, and lay leaders. It is also enables me to be with a large number of parishioners and visitors. As I enter churches filled with so many people – parents, grandparents, godparents, and friends – I am in the company of many who are seeking what is best for the young people I am about to confirm.

It is also an opportunity for me to share the Gospel not only with the confirmandi (Latin for “about to be confirmed”) but also with those already confirmed, perhaps many years ago. Following Mass and Confirmation, I visit with the newly confirmed as well as their parents and godparents. On those occasions, young people ask me to bless religious objects and tell me (at my prompting) whether they are rooting for the Mets, the Yankees, the Red Sox, or some other team. Many tell me about their schools or about special talents in music, drama, and sports. Often I am asked to pray for a loved one who is sick and dying or for some other special intention. Once in a while, parishioners will remind me of some exchange of correspondence, compliment their priests, or ask me a question – all while the cameras are clicking away. It’s organized chaos and it’s fun!

Confirmation also gives me the chance to thank the Directors of Religious Education, School Principals, catechists, youth ministers, and others who work so diligently to form our young people in the faith and in the truths and values that flow from faith. Theirs is not an easy task. We are blessed with wonderful, talented, and idealistic young people. At the same time, they tend to lead extremely busy lives, often with little time allotted for religious education and for Sunday Mass. Like it or not, at increasingly earlier ages, they also face a lot of pressure to engage in destructive behaviors such as premarital sex, drinking, and illicit drugs. These behaviors are contrary both to the Gospel and to good common sense. Our catechists and youth ministers are on the front lines in trying to help young people learn and embrace the faith so as to overcome these challenges both to their friendship with God and to their human dignity as well as to keep them on the path of integrity and discipleship.

This is a regular feature highlighting some of the difficult questions experienced by catechists, teachers and parents who are put ‘on the spot’ by those they are teaching. How can an understanding of sacramentality help us when we are in dialogue with non-Catholic Christians who can find this central aspect of our faith bewildering?

She has been a member of the Church of England all her life – almost sixty years. As a young woman she experienced a conversion which enriched her faith, and since that time she has attended Sunday worship regularly and is deeply involved in many aspects of Anglican life, both spiritual and practical. We are able to speak of our faith to each other, albeit in either superficial or social terms, but I had assumed we stood on common ground in rather more areas than proved to be the case. In the course of a recent conversation in which I had mentioned some aspect of Church teaching on the Sacraments, she turned to me in utter confusion.

‘What’s a sacrament anyway?’ she asked. ‘I don’t understand what you mean by a sacrament.’

It seems that we do not always stand on solid ground when we assume other Christians understand what we mean by a sacrament, ‘sacramentality’ or the connection this effects between God and ourselves. Sacraments were dismissed at the Reformation as ‘dead works’ and seem to have an uncertain and ambiguous meaning for many of our fellow Christians – Christians who are part of our families, our schools and our daily lives.

How might First Communion catechesis be carried out if it is based on the Catechumenal model?

Having laid the foundation for the baptismal catechumenate as the model for all catechesis, we are able to illustrate how these principles are or can be applied pastorally to catechetical instruction of children preparing to receive First Holy Communion.

The catechesis of children begins in the home. As the primary educators of their children, parents form their children humanly and spiritually by instruction and example. Parents plant the seeds of the Christian faith within their children. This is analogous to the pre-catechumenate, where the initial evangelization takes place. Children are introduced to God and Catholic piety for the first time by their parents. When a child is taken to Holy Mass, he gains a sense of the Eucharistic mystery, rudimentary as his understanding might be. Eventually, he will grow in understanding of the Eucharist through the experience of the liturgy and the teachings and example of his parents.[x]

Once the child reaches the age of reason, he is ready to continue catechesis in preparation for First Holy Communion in a more formal manner. Formal catechetical instruction corresponds to the catechumenate, whereby he will be systematically taught the Church’s teaching on the Holy Eucharist by his pastor and a catechist. This catechesis will, in turn, enable the child’s parents to catechize more effectively. During this period of formal catechesis, there are certain essential truths of the faith that must be taught which are outlined in the National Directory for Catechesis.

On May 9, 2001, the Congregation for Bishops granted recognitio to the action of the United States bishops regarding the Sacrament of Confirmation. This action was that the sacrament ‘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.’[i] As a result, there is a diverse practice for the Sacrament of Confirmation in the United States, differing from diocese to diocese and, in some cases, parish to parish.[ii] Because of this diversity, the guidelines for catechesis for confirmation in the National Directory for Catechesis are not as thorough as that for the other sacraments. Many dioceses confer Confirmation during middle school, some have mandated Confirmation at the age of discretion for the whole diocese, and many leave the decision up to the pastor of the specific parish.[iii]

In this article, I would like to address sacramental preparation/catechesis for Confirmation when conferred on adolescents. I will first look at the basic relevant Scriptural and theological principles of Confirmation. Then I would like to discuss some catechetical difficulties and abuses that are present in contemporary Confirmation preparation/catechesis and offer some possible solutions. Finally, I will offer several pastoral considerations in preparing adolescents for Confirmation.

On Feb. 22 2007, the Feast of the Chair of Peter, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, published his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (On the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission). In no. 64 of this apostolic exhortation Pope Benedict XVI takes up the topic of the character of ongoing catechesis on the Eucharist to enable the deeply interior dispositions required for a fruitful participation in the Holy Eucharist. It addresses what is required for a personal eucharistic piety which is deep and constant. This is a topic which has suffered from some neglect during the first decades of the liturgical reforms that followed upon the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.