Speaking at his weekly general audience in October, Pope Francis
pointedly warned that the sacrament of confirmation should not be
reduced to what he called “last rites” – a kind of “departure” ritual
from the Catholic Church.
“It is said that it is the farewell sacrament because once young
people do it, they go away and then return for marriage,” the pope said.
“This is what people say. But we must ensure that it is rather the
sacrament of the beginning of active participation in the life of the
Church.”
The pope’s concern is well-founded, as many U.S. dioceses struggle to
keep young people engaged in the faith. Research indicates that
disaffiliation from organized religion is happening at increasingly
younger ages.
A study titled “Going, Going, Gone: The Dynamics of Disaffiliation in
Young Catholics” found that the median age of disaffiliation from the
Catholic Church among young people is now 13. The study, published in
2017, sampled 5.4 million former U.S. Catholics between 15 and 25.
Recognizing those shifting realities, Archbishop William E. Lori is
lowering the standard age for confirmation in the Archdiocese of
Baltimore to 9. The age had previously been set at 14-16 in the
Baltimore archdiocese, typically for those in eighth to 10th grades.
In lowering the age, the archbishop hopes to provide children with
the opportunity to deepen their faith at a formative stage in their
spiritual journey. He also expects that the change will encourage
parents to become more involved in the faith formation of their
children.
“(I)t is my sincere hope that, by more actively engaging parents in
the preparation of their children’s confirmation, the graces of the
sacrament will take root in these young people’s lives – sealing their
missionary identity in the Spirit and sending them forth,” Archbishop
Lori said in a Jan. 22 letter to priests announcing the new standard.
The change will be implemented in three waves, organized
geographically, beginning in the 2025-26 catechetical year. By the
spring of 2028, all parishes will offer confirmation at age 9.
Archbishop Lori reached his decision after more than two years of
what he called “intensive study, consultation and prayerful
discernment.”
Archbishop Lori explained that the study and consultation period
revealed two key insights. First, he said, the zeal and readiness of
young disciples is often underestimated. Second, the role of parents and
family is the “decisive factor” in helping young people grow into adult
disciples.
‘Healthier way to go’
Father Mark Bialek, pastor of St. John in Westminster, has seen
positive results in his parish, one of five pilot parishes that already
implemented the change in the last two years. Others include St. Agnes
in Catonsville, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crofton, St. John the
Evangelist in Frederick and St. Patrick in Havre de Grace.
“In the past, we’ve found that confirmation is usually tied to a
mandatory process where you have to go through maybe one or two years of
youth ministry,” Father Bialek said. “It’s basically holding
confirmation as a carrot in order to get our young people to actually go
through the sacramental preparation process or to build up youth
ministry.”
The better approach, he said, is to encourage both parents and their
children to experience conversion, growing deeper in love with the
Catholic faith and participation in the parish.
“It’s a much healthier way to go,” said Father Bialek, who also leads
St. Joseph in Taneytown, where confirmation will begin at age 9 next
year.
During the pilot phase, the priest said parents brought their
children to faith formation sessions and participated right alongside
their sons and daughters. Sessions were held on the parish campus
separately for children and parents, and also for parents and children
together. Many engaged in meaningful conversations about their faith, he
said.
Kenn deMoll, director of formation and innovation at St. John in Westminster, said parents were enthusiastic.
“What I saw at the end of our process is that I had a lot of parents
saying to me, ‘This was awesome,’ ” deMoll said. “They wanted to know
what other kinds of faith formation opportunities we provide as a
parish.”
While some have raised concerns that separating confirmation
preparation from the teen years might weaken youth ministry, deMoll
believes it will have the opposite effect. He previously served from
2015 to 2016 as the director of youth and young adult ministry for the
Diocese of Great Falls-Billings in Montana, where the age of
confirmation is 7.
DeMoll acknowledged that back then he was “not at all sold” on a younger age for confirmation.
“But what really started to win me over was when I saw how engaged
their high school youth ministry populations were,” he said. “We had
kids coming from all over to gather pretty faithfully for high school
youth ministry events. It was eye-opening.”
Disconnecting confirmation from youth ministry encourages young
people to participate in youth ministry for its own sake, deMoll said.
“Having youth ministry exist purely for the function of engaging and
evangelizing teens takes a lot of pressure off the youth minister,” he
said, “and it will really give them a lot of freedom to dream big.”
Trends
Stacy Golden, director of the Office of Family, Youth and Young Adult
Ministry within the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Institute for
Evangelization, said the number of parishioners being confirmed in
parishes throughout the archdiocese has been on the decline for years.
While she didn’t have specific numbers, she noted that there was not a
single parish among the many with which she has consulted that has not
reported declining confirmation statistics.
Part of the challenge is that many parents are themselves
disaffiliated from the church or never received significant faith
formation. So, they don’t pass that down to their children, she said.
“We have generations of parents now who didn’t encounter the Lord and
don’t see faith as relevant,” Golden said. “So, with the way the world
is now – as secular as it is, we’re just trying to find ways to be more
invitational.”
Studies have shown that children around age 9 are open, trusting and curious about conversion and receiving grace, Golden said.
“So why are we withholding graces (received in the sacrament of
confirmation)?” she asked. “If we believe sacraments really work, why
say you have to wait until you’re in high school for confirmation?”
The Code of Canon Law states that the sacrament of confirmation
should be conferred at about the age of discretion. In the United
States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops allows each bishop to
determine that age for his diocese.
In recent years, some dioceses have lowered the age. Last year, the
Archdiocese of Boston announced it was lowering the age from 16 to 13,
and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, La., announced it was lowering the age
from 11th grade to seventh grade. In 2019, the Diocese of Jefferson
City, Mo., lowered it from from 16-17 to 12.
A small number of dioceses have made the age even younger, with
children receiving it at 7 – the same year they receive the sacraments
of reconciliation and first Eucharist. The Diocese of Manchester, N.H.,
announced in 2017 that it was moving confirmation to age 7, with
children receiving the sacrament prior to first Eucharist (the historic
sequence of those sacraments following baptism).
When Pope St. Pius X lowered the age of first Communion to 7 in 1910,
he said nothing about confirmation. As a result, U.S. bishops kept
reception of the sacrament of confirmation around age 12. In the decades
following the Second Vatican Council, the age for confirmation ticked
upward in some dioceses.
Preparation for the sacrament became a more protracted process
involving class study and required retreats. Mandatory service projects
were also introduced.
Under the new policy in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, parishes are
encouraged to hold no more than six to eight formation sessions. As has
been the practice in the archdiocese since 2022, retreats and Christian
service are encouraged, but not required. Under the new guidelines,
however, those retreats and service experiences are now meant for the
whole family.
“We still say those things are important,” Golden said. “It’s just the way we go about them that’s going to look different.”
Another key shift involves the resources used for confirmation
preparation. Since existing materials are geared toward teens, new
resources will be needed to align with a younger age group, she said.
“Publishers are already starting to come out with resources for
younger children,” Golden said. “So I don’t think that’s going to be an
issue.”
The real challenge will be fostering a change in culture and a shift in how confirmation is popularly understood.
“In the past, we’ve treated sacramental prep as a head thing where
it’s filling our young people with knowledge of the faith or having them
hear about Jesus,” Father Bialek said. “This new approach is an
opportunity for them to truly encounter him, and it’s more of a heart
thing than a head thing. Head and heart have to work together.”
Golden noted that if church leaders expect children to be able to
have some understanding of transubstantiation when they are preparing
for first Communion at age 7, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to
have some understanding of the sealing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
as they prepare for confirmation at age 9.
DeMoll agreed.
“I think we’ve leaned so heavily on this idea that confirmation is
about becoming an ‘adult’ in the church that we almost feel (as though)
you need to become a theological genius in order to receive it,” deMoll
said. “You don’t have to know a million things in order to get
confirmed. Do you love the Lord? Do you want to serve him and do you
want to grow in mission? If the answer is yes, then I think you’re ready
to be confirmed.”
