CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 05:15 am (CNA).
The Diocese of Baton Rouge announced it would be lowering its confirmation age, just days after the Diocese of Salt Lake City shared it would adjust its process for youth converts to ensure thorough catechesis.
These decisions indicate a growing desire to strengthen the formation of youth in the Catholic faith.
Tim Glemkowski, who heads Amazing Parish, a ministry designed to support Catholic pastors and help parishes flourish, spoke to the challenges of remaining Catholic that young adults face in the culture today.
“The pressures of the culture are away from, not toward, religious belief and practice,” Glemkowski told CNA. “It is fair to say that our culture, broadly speaking, does not lend itself to preconditions.”
As the Church strives to address how to properly form youth in such a culture, in recent years many dioceses have lowered the confirmation age from high school to middle school or even younger, including the Archdiocese of Seattle, to seventh grade; the Boston Archdiocese to eighth grade; and the Archdiocese of Denver to third grade before young people have received communion.
Requiring confirmation before communion is known as “the restored order” — a celebration of the sacraments of initiation as the Church originally instructed them to be dispensed: baptism, confirmation, and then first communion. The U.S. bishops allow reception of confirmation for youth between ages 7 and 17.
According to a study by St. Mary’s Press and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA), the median age of those who left the Church was 13 years old. The study found that many former Catholics who reported leaving usually between ages 10 and 20, said they had questions about the faith as children but never discussed their doubts or questions with their parents or Church leaders.
“We need to ensure that youth learn how to pray with their heart, have their questions about the faith answered in robust ways, and have many opportunities to hear the Gospel and respond to God by handing over their life to him,” Glemkowski said.
“Young saints should show us that holiness and heroic mission is possible for young people; we should not underestimate what kids are capable of.”
Addressing a hostile culture
The Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recently lowered the confirmation age to seventh grade, citing the challenges that face youth today.
“Our children are experiencing a culture which, at times, is hostile to our faith,” Bishop Michael Duca of Baton Rouge wrote in a Dec. 8 letter.
“Through social media of all forms, young people are confronted at a surprisingly younger age with challenges to their Catholic faith and morals,” Duca explained. “Given this new reality, I believe it is time to lower the age of confirmation to give our children the full grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation at an earlier age to meet these challenges.
Duca announced they would begin a transition plan to lower the age from 10th to seventh grade gradually.
“This gift of the Spirit is given to all of us in a special way in the sacrament of confirmation that fully initiates us into the Church and fills us with these gifts and the enthusiasm to take on the mission of Christ to renew the world,” he wrote.
“Many older Catholics remember that the age of confirmation was younger when we were confirmed,” Duca continued. “After the Second Vatican Council, in many places, the age was raised to high school since many leaders felt that the sacrament would be better understood at an older age. This practice has worked well, but times have changed.”
Strengthening formation
The diocese of Salt Lake City is also developing its catechetical program for youth converts who are too old for infant baptism, citing a need to strengthen catechesis within the diocese.
The diocese announced last month that children above the age of seven who are joining the Catholic Church will not receive all three sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil after the diocese temporarily paused the standard practice.
After baptism, children joining the Church in the diocese are to attend a faith formation class at their age level, rather than receiving several sacraments at once, according to the diocesan announcement. The pause is temporary as the diocese develops its faith formation plans.
The Church considers children older than seven to be at the “age of reason” and able to make some decisions of faith for themselves, so unbaptized youth are usually enrolled in the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) adapted for children, a year-long preparation program for becoming Catholic.
The Church broadly requires that for sacramental initiation after the age of reason, recipients should receive the three sacraments of initiation at the same time, except with grave reason.
However, the diocese of Salt Lake City cites “many challenges and our limited ability to overcome them in a missionary diocese” as the reason for the temporary moratorium on OCIA for children.
Through the moratorium, the diocese hopes to ensure that catechesis is adequate and that children understand the sacraments they are participating in; the diocese is also looking to develop its programs in order to enable unbaptized children to fully assimilate into the faith, according to the announcement.
This pause will end after the diocese develops a “comprehensive faith formation plan,” according to Lorena Needham, director of the Office of Worship for the diocese.
Needham noted that OCIA generally comes with many challenges across dioceses.
“There is still a classroom-school year mentality in which both catechumen and directors try to work within a timeline of one year or less, instead of allowing each person to discern their journey (along with the discernment of the initiation catechist),” Needham told CNA.
Both the parents and the child must consent to joining the Church — but children “cannot adequately give [consent] if they do not know and understand what the sacraments of initiation are,” she noted in the diocesan announcement in Intermountain Catholic.
“There is little training in the seminaries on the OCIA — often it is just an optional class,” she noted, adding that other groups such as LTP, TeamInitiation, and the Association for Catechumenal Ministry offer ongoing training.
To remedy this situation, the diocese of Salt Lake City hopes to place a greater emphasis on training for Christian initiation.
“Some bishops have taken Christian Initiation to heart and made it a focus for the professional development of their priests and central to their pastoral plans,” Needham observed.
The biggest change under the temporary moratorium mandates that youth baptized above the age of seven will receive sacraments one at a time, rather than all at once. This will entail attending first communion and confirmation classes within their age groups.
Under the moratorium, the requirements for obtaining baptism for youth over age seven are unchanged. The current pastoral directives of the diocese require a parent interview at least 60 days before the baptism, as well as discernment of the parents’ readiness to help the child live a Christian life. In addition, parents must be registered in the parish or live within its boundaries, and the parish must provide baptismal preparation for the child, parents, and godparents.
“The hope for our youth, our families, and indeed for all of us in this diocese, is that we have the best possible opportunities to learn and live our faith, regardless of when the Holy Spirit moves us or our parents to take the next step of faith,” Needham said in the announcement.
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I am 70. AS you say in the article, I made Confirmation in the 6th grade, generally younger than they do now. Then in recent years my diocese moved it up to 8th grade. So, now the trend is back down to younger again? Why dont they make up their minds?
In reality by the time kids get to 8th grade or high school, they have often lost interest in the church. Or, commitments to school work and sports ( which means scholarships) make it almost impossible for them to continue on with the CCD training for this sacrament.
Do it young and then try to keep them hooked in with decent community service projects arranged by the parish or CCD teachers.
I well remember raising money for the “missions” in my classroom. I dont know if they still do this but it would be a shame if they did not. Helping the needy as Jesus proclaimed is a large part of active Christianity and children should be made familiar with the concept.
No. Stop with this absolute woke nonsense.
Children need to go to school and do extracurricular activities that will help them get into a good university so they can graduate and become productive members who contribute to the greater good of society.
Let the “needy” find a way to help themselves and stop wasting our money and time on people who are completely worthless and not worth anyone’s time, energy, or effort. What you refer to as “needy” people are nothing but lazy drug addicts who made their choices and don’t deserve anything from anyone.
Are there no prisons. Are there no workhouses?…
“Stop with this absolute woke nonsense.”
• “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.” — Dt 15:11
• “But he saves the fatherless from their mouth, the needy from the hand of the mighty.” – Job 5:15
• “For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.” Psa 9:18
• “For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.” – Psa 72:12
• “He who oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.” – Prov 14:31
Etc. Try again.
Thank you Carl, for the defense!!
In point of fact I grew up in a relatively poor household. We were not on welfare but money was tight. Money was not squandered, there simply wasnt enough of it. My dad worked full time and did side jobs for extra cash, mom went to work as soon as my youngest brother was old enough. This was a common theme in our mostly Catholic neighborhood, where many families had 6 children and some had more than that.At Christmas time, the question from my grandparents wasn’t “what do they WANT?” The question was “what do they NEED?” Often the answer was a coat, boots, or the like. Still, we didnt know enough to realize our economic circumstance as children but were vaguely aware that others were worse off than we were.
Thankfully, I am in a much better life position now. It was worth the struggle to get here. I do feel that when I engage in charity, I am in fact the one more blessed. Those who have never donated the fixings for a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, or donated to charities struggling to build a community well for those so poor they do not even have the basic necessity of clean water, have missed something special in their life. Help a homeless veteran. Help a native American child who needs school supplies.
Yes, there are people who have made poor life choices and some who take advantage. But there are many more who struggle each week for food and shelter due to no fault of their own. As for addicts, it is far easier to say to them “stop using that stuff” than it is to actually give it up. Its a complex illness. They too need our help. Where is forgiveness? Have we not at times needed that forgiveness and acceptance ourselves??
Teaching children the basics about being the hands of Jesus by helping others, about kindness and giving, is the absolute most basic thing they should understand about Christianity. Jesus made a point of asking us to do this. No doubt it is a plus to teach children to stand on their own two feet. It is also imperative they learn to extend a helping hand in the name of Jesus when a hand is needed and we can help.
Finally, as for children “leaving” church following Confirmation… I would say the parents bear majority responsibility for that, as an 11 or 12 year old should not be empowered to say “no” to church attendance. If the parents are failing to attend Mass, that is on them for showing bad example. Further if a child has at least received Confirmation, they may at some point think to return to the church, even if they have been absent for years.The Holy Spirit taps on a lot of shoulders, in His own good time.
I think he might’ve been having fun.
How on earth did you find your way to a Catholic web site? How can you be so at odds with the Church’s teachings on charity and kindness?
Andy, the word “worthless” is frowned upon by God.
Contra, Escriva, telling God, “I am nothing, I can do nothing …..”
Also, Catherine Siena, ever elevated and eloquent.
In Arabic my last name has nuanced different connotations, from gold and priceless to invaluable and reserved.
Invaluable. Valueless.
But you say it wrong in another way Gerald.
Christ’s Redemption is our true worth.
I am 78 and made Confirmation in 5th grade in NYC. I remember being told I was now a “soldier of Christ” as the bishop slapped me hard across my left cheek.
That slap sharpened my memory of that exact moment. I have always remembered that I am a soldier of Christ and to act accordingly (most of the time). Bring back the good old days!
I am not woke, never will be woke, want to get rid of woke. But I have awakened to the reality that to focus solely on self and my needs and what will please me will lead, has lead to personal diminishment and despair. We are all needy. When I help others in their need I am helped the most. A quote I came by on a Christmas card the other day: ” Love is God’s epiphany in our poverty.” We are all poor. See another’s poverty and give of yourself in love to relieve it. You will soon realize your real wealth and be happy.
If children have a clear understanding of the “Teachings of Christ” everything else will fall into place. Christ–the teacher– spent his ministry telling His followers what human behavior pleases God. The “Teachings of Christ” is the tool God gave us to change the world. I went to 3 Catholic websites and found zero articles written about the “Teachings of Christ”. We have been sidetracked.
I read with surprise that the Archdiocese of Boston had “lowered” its age for Confirmations to eighth grade. I was confirmed in that archdiocese in eighth grade back in 1967. Unfortunately, for many, at least back then, Confirmation meant “now I can stop going to church!” Considering how few teenagers and young adults I see at weekly Mass, I’d guess that little has changed. Why push it back to an even younger age? (And lest anyone feel tempted to point out how many teenagers and young adults one sees at the TLM, I received my formal religious education from fully habited nuns before the NO existed. The Latin Mass had little effect on anyone who really wanted to leave, and their numbers were legion.)
Yes, Ken. Devotees of the Old Mass often find themselves blaming the New Mass for the falling away of Catholics. But, as you write, many of us are old enough to know that we and our contemporaries were raised with the Old Mass, and the very many of our contemporaries ceased practising the Faith.
What we see as good attendance of younger and older families at Old Masses is an effect of the piety of those families, especially the parents, who find the celebration of the New Mass so often tainted by abuses/sacrileges. It’s not that the Old Mass has made them pious and kept them faithful.
As someone who received the sacrament at age 9 and remembers it as a very significant event, the “restore the order” makes “theological” sense. However, I have been associated with three parishes in two different dioceses that have lowered the age (5-8th grade). Two observations: One, some parental revolt and “red shirting” their kids. Second, you will never see the vast majority of the kids return to any type of religious education, youth program or even attend Mass once confirmed. I have seen once vibrant religious ed and youth programs for older kids destroyed. I have heard some bishops say we can’t hold kids as Confirmation hostages until older, but I’m just explaining the reality of my observations. The problem really isn’t with Confirmation or the age, there is a more fundamental problem, for most youth (and I dare say their parents), their faith simply isn’t significant to their lives. I would like to say that receiving the grace of the sacrament enlivened their faith, but grace requires cooperation.
I struggle to see how you had “a vibrant religious ed and youth programs for older kids” if for most of the actual youth “their faith simply isn’t significant to their lives”.
Can’t have it both ways. Either their faith really is significant to their lives, or the religious ed was vibrant in a similar way that a zombie is vibrant. I suspect it is the latter.
The problem is that the majority of what keeps kids as faithful Catholics comes from their parents, not from catechists. That means the solution is to convert the parents. And in the meantime, don’t hold back the kids who have faithful Catholic parents.
Let me explain in a little more detail. Previously, the diocese left it to the parishes to decide on the age of Confirmation. For one parish I’m familiar, they decided on 10th grade. Then the diocese mandated 5/6th grade. There were a couple effects. Most kids stopped coming to CCD/PSR at this point. This also affected the youth program for high school which I’ll get to in a minute. I know some bishops say we can’t hold kids as “Confirmation hostages” but, by delaying Confirmation by 5-6 years there is the ability to go into more advance teaching with older kids that they will never get if they are gone by 5/6th grade. As for the youth program. As a condition of Confirmation, the kids were required to attend a youth conference. Yes, I know, sometimes kids have a great spiritual experience that doesn’t stick, but sometimes it does. I don’t know how may priests I have heard that trace their vocation back to a youth conf. Also, kids tend to form tight bonds through the shared experience over the weekend that continues, and hence, the HS youth program is greatly strengthened. Here is the issue: most youth conferences are for HS age kids. With 5/6 grade Confirmation they can’t attend. Hope this helps.
We can develope programs, change the age for conformation up or down. But if we do not teach the correct content, and have teachers who know and believe the content teaching it, things will not change.
I read an article this past week quoting G K Chesterton. When asked why he was Catholic he gave a three word answer – “it is true.”
This is what we need to emphasize – we have the true Church established by Christ, and the true sacraments instituted by Christ as the means for our salvation. While there are many positives to ecumenicism, the negative is that indifferentism has become more prevalent. We have the whole truth. It makes no sense to abandon that.
I have always believed that the strength of youth is rooted in the strength of the family. When both parents actively demonstrate their faith and commitment to living the gospel, pray together as a family, and freely discuss doctrine and dogma in the home, children are strengthened. They are better equipped to deal with challenges to faith. It is not a guarantee of faithfulness, but it is a way of helping our children to put on the armor of God. They may experience trying times, but they will return to the faith.
Michael is absolutely correct. Study after study shows the biggest indicator (by far) that a child will continue practicing their faith is parental faith involvement. Read “Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers” by Christian Smith (U. of Notre Dame). We can create the best youth programs, send kids to Catholic school etc. but nothing is even close to the influence of parents. As an aside, other than the Amish (~90%?), the faith tradition that does best in retention is LDS. Their theology is a royal mess, but they take the mess seriously. How many Catholic parents would support funding and sending their kids on a two-year mission in the middle of college years? They put us to shame.
Interesting article. I receive Confirmation when I was in 2nd Grade (at a Parochial School) in 1963. I had no idea that was unusual until many years later. As an altar boy, I had to learn to assist with the Latin Mass. We (altar boys) also received continuing education in our Faith. I see no problems lower the age to receive Confirmation, but we must be diligent to continue education to and throughout adulthood.
In the Eastern Catholic Churches the norm is to administer the Sacraments of Initiaton at birth. The early Church did so as well. It is primarily tbe responsibility of the parents to teach their kids the faith and practice it together. It has always struck me odd that the Roman Rite chooses to delay Confirmation (it is a completion of baptism) and I think they should restore these sacraments to their original proper order.
Some problems: terrible parish celebrations of Mass that ape secular culture, lousy catechetical programs in parishes taught by unqualified volunteers, a lack of reinforcement and practice of Catholic faith by parents at home. Catholicism is viewed as an extracurricular activity, and parents see it as their duty to get their children confirmed; then, they consider their responsibilities complete.
Bishops don’t know what do to. Every year they confirm hundreds of thousands of teens who will not darken the door of a church for Mass again for many months or years.
Confirmation is a total farce of a sacrament as it is currently prepared and celebrated.
That is 100% my experience.
I think you are right, Sebastian.
With the possible exception of Holy Orders, I would say that all the sacraments suffer from mockery/farce in some capacity.
It’s the adults who need their faith strengthened.
Children learn what they live or so I’ve heard.
I appreciate the Bishops trying to do something about the huge, huge number of children leaving the Faith, but they really don’t understand what to do. Focusing on the Sacraments more is not bad, but it’s really not the answer to every problem the modern Church has.
That being said, I really recommend the website http://www.HowToKeepYourKidsCatholic.com, which focuses on what the name implies: things parents can do to help their children become/stay Catholic.
I am a parent myself and have some affiliation with this site.
P.S. See The Federalist – Millions of Americans Will Do Anything For Their Kids’ Sports, Including Cutting Church, Dec. 20.
Actions speak louder than words, or so I’ve heard.
Think the kids aren’t taking lessons?
The Sacraments…produce a greater effect in proportion as the dispositions of the recipient are better…
Decree on Dispositions for Daily Communion
Pope St. Pius X, December 20, 1905
What impact does this have for, say, the imposition of Confirmation on 7yo’s or 8yo’s ?
What about infant Baptism where the parents and/or Godparents are nonbelievers ?
The Catechism, Article 2, #1285, tells us “…by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] … are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed”.
Now, can any of you claim that a child is equipped and/or motivated to “defend the faith by word and deed” ?
I’m afraid that I see as very silly any idea to confer Confirmation on anyone below the age of, say, 18yo. I write as a father of six children in regard to whom my wife and I delayed their Confirmations until that age or older. Five of those children continue to practise the Faith.
Well, the entire Eastern tradition disagrees with you, and for good reason. Grace does not work based on intellect or maturity, although such things are good and helpful.
Why baptize a baby is they do not know what’s “going on”? Growing up in a Fundamentalist setting, we didn’t get baptized until we were older. Perhaps the Catholic Church should do that? No, of course not.
The East (and, really, the West as well) understand that the sacraments convey the Trinitarian life, and so baptism is a new birth through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist (given to infants in the East after being baptized) is food. Who keeps food from their infant child? And so forth.
The goal is participation in the divine life, so why keep it from young children? This (mostly Western) mentality is so strange and, frankly, non-Catholic to me.
You ask the question, Carl, why baptise a baby if she (I’m afraid I despise the genuflection to feminism in the use of a plural pronoun for an individual) doesn’t know what’s going on. Well, that’s why the child has Godparents, isn’t it ? And, the fact that those Godparents are given the responsibility for raising the child in the Faith should the parents meet premature death, certainly confirms that the child/infant is seen as not being able to “act out” the graces received in Baptism.
Anyway, the topic was centred on Confirmation, which is necessary for the completion of Baptismal grace. That tends to give some indication that it is a sacrament for a more mature Catholic person.
As for giving Holy Eucharist to infants, the mind boggles. They have no idea of almost anything at all, let alone of the Real Presence. We might as well distribute Holy Communion to Protestants; they’ve been validly Baptised.
So, how do you respond to Pope St Pius X ?
P.S.: You’ve left out how it is that children can spread and defend the Faith by word and deed.
Do you expect your two-year-old or eight-year-old to do the work and thinking of a fully mature adult? Of course not. And yet you feed them, clothe them, love them, and do all that you can to help them reach maturity. And that is exactly what the Church should do as well. It’s both logical and theo-logical.
“As for giving Holy Eucharist to infants, the mind boggles.”
How so? That’s how it was in the first centuries of the Church and has always been in the East.
As for maturity, how about this from the Catechism of the Catholic Church?
I find that especially wonderful because, although I’ve been in an Eastern Catholic parish since 2000—in which all three of our children were baptized, received Communon, and were chrismated as infants/toddlers—I entered the Church in 1997, and my patron saint is St. Thomas.
Further, again from the Catechism:
So, yes, there were logical reasons involved in the change that took place in the West. But do note: “The East has kept them united…”
And yet the East, for various reasons, is treated like the ugly, red-headed step-sister by so many “Roman Catholics”. Quite sad. Especially since St. Pope John Paul II spent so much time and ink trying to get Western-rite Catholics to show some interest in and knowledge of Eastern Catholic (his mother was Eastern Catholic). Alas, it hardly moved the needle.
“We might as well distribute Holy Communion to Protestants; they’ve been validly Baptised.”
Really? Really??
I was raised an anti-Catholic Fundamentalist Protestant and I railed against the Catholic Church into my late teens. When I began, in my mid-20s, to really study Church history and Catholic teaching, I began to realize so many things about the sacraments and the Eucharist. The Eucharist, in fact, was at the core of why my wife and I—both of us graduates of Evangelical Bible colleges, etc.—became Catholic.
So, to hear this sort of nonsense, frankly, is deeply grating. Yes, when I was baptized at the age of 10 in a Fundamentalist setting, I was truly baptized. But I was not in full and visible Communion with the Catholic Church. But when my three children were baptized, they were in fact in full communion. And so they had every right—theologically and canonically—to receive Holy Communion (and to be chrismated). And they were. A Protestant, in a real sense, in a relationship with the Catholic Church, even if they are unaware of it or deny it (as most do). But the Catholic who is baptized is in the family; they are to be fed with the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; they are to be fully empowered by the Holy Spirit—not because of an IQ test or passing a catechetical class, but because they are in fact true children of God.
I just wish more Roman Catholics would really read the Catechism and know what the Church actually teaches.
Thank you, Carl, for these responses. I had made two or three earlier Comments, which were immediately posted. When my last Comment, challenging some of your Comment, wasn’t posted, I feared that it might’ve been suppressed, and I went away very disappointed. But I subsequently returned to find my Comment had been posted, over an hour after I submitted it. That’s a bit mysterious, but I guess it did give you time to do some research and find some material with which to “rebut” my challenges.
Anyway, I had and still have no interest in a prolonged debate or argument about the preferred age for the conferral of the sacrament of Confirmation. And I find your recourse to Eastern Catholic praxis, despite my respect for the Eastern Church, only muddies the water. Were we discussing the Trinity, would you have recourse to the position which the Eastern Catholic Church holds ?
Thank you for a quote or two from the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, to which Eastern Catholics (I guess such as yourself) do not subscribe: Eastern Catholics have their own catechism(s). Nonetheless, I have no aversion to your quoting from the Catechism; I do so myself. But the Catechism is not infallible, as perhaps what might seem contradictory quotes presented by you and I might affirm. And we know, don’t we, that Francis’s anathema of capital punishment will be removed from the Catechism by a later Pope ?
And I also very much appreciate what the Early Church teaches us. But we remember that the Holy Ghost continues to work in the Church, and some practices of the Early Church became abandoned through the light of the Holy Ghost, such as the reception of Holy Communion in the hand.
Anyway, the nub is that you haven’t answered my questions, or, at least, not coherently. And you have actually skirted around them, as I say, muddying the water.
They remain (1) how do you who call for Confirmation to be conferred on youngsters respond to Pope St Pius X’s declaration ? And (2) how do you expect youngsters to spread and defend the Faith by word and deed ?
And please don’t call upon the marvellous exceptional example of Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio. If you must call upon an example, call upon the absolutely untold number of Catholic youngsters Confirmed at a young age who went on to completely discard the Faith.
There are many other of your claims that cry out for challenge, Carl, but I have neither the time (Christmas Eve) nor the interest really.
And it would be more Catholic if you could avoid casting those who might challenge you as ignorant and non-Catholic.
Dominus tecum
A number of saints who were under the age of 18 have defended the Faith by word and deed and some with their lives.
Re final comment from Carl in Graeme/Carl debate –
Yes, more Catholics should read the Catechism. It’s (only) 756 pages long. But it is an amazing treasure. I’m embarrassed it took me so long to discover it. Now there is a Compendium out as well – on my list after I finish Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Catechism in a Year podcast (two years, soon to become three in my case).