Mandates for Confirmations by Priests
Date: April 7, 2024
Author: Fr. Edward McNamara, LC
Question: Most of the time, there are baptisms of adults at the Easter vigil Mass. Does the parish priest (pastor) need a mandate from the bishop to confirm adults? If, in the course of the year, a couple is planning to get married and the parish priest discovers that one or both of them were not confirmed, can he confirm them, or must he wait for the bishop’s visit for them to be confirmed? -- F.X.N.K., Ndola, Zambia
Answer: The two cases are distinct.
The Christian initiation of adults by the baptizing priest is foreseen in canon law and the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA, formerly the RCIA). To wit:
Canon law:
“THE MINISTER OF CONFIRMATION
“Can. 882 The ordinary minister of confirmation is a bishop; a presbyter provided with this faculty in virtue of universal law or the special grant of the competent authority also confers this sacrament validly.
“Can. 883 The following possess the faculty of administering confirmation by the law itself:
“1/ within the boundaries of their jurisdiction, those who are equivalent in law to a diocesan bishop;
“2/ as regards the person in question, the presbyter who by virtue of office or mandate of the diocesan bishop baptizes one who is no longer an infant or admits one already baptized into the full communion of the Catholic Church;
“3/ as regards those who are in danger of death, the pastor or indeed any presbyter.”
The OCIA:
“14 The priest who baptizes an adult or a child of catechetical age should, when the bishop is absent, also confer confirmation, unless this sacrament is to be given at another time (see no. 24).
“When there are a large number of candidates to be confirmed, the minister of confirmation may associate priests with himself to administer the sacrament. It is preferable that the priests who are so invited:
“1. either have a particular function or office in the diocese, being, namely, either vicars general, episcopal vicars, or district or regional vicars;
“2. or be the parish priests (pastors) of the places where confirmation is conferred, parish priests (pastors) of the places where the candidates belong, or priests who have had a special part in the catechetical preparation of the candidates.”
The above-mentioned No. 24 says:
“In certain cases when there is serious reason, confirmation may be postponed until near the end of the period of postbaptismal catechesis, for example, Pentecost Sunday (see no. 239).”
Therefore, in virtue of his office, the law itself grants a parish priest who baptizes an adult or receives a baptized adult into full communion with the Church, the faculty to confirm. He does not require in this case a specific mandate from the bishop, although the bishop indirectly does authorize the confirmation insofar as it is his responsibility to establish and determine the formation program and the various steps of the catechumenate. It is also recommended that the bishop preside personally at some of these stages.
In the case of unconfirmed Catholics preparing for marriage, the solution will depend on the concrete circumstances and the frequency of the situation.
Some dioceses, in which this situation is quite common, have well-organized formation programs at the diocesan level that are integrated with the courses for marriage preparation. In this way, a bishop celebrates the sacrament of confirmation for couples from various parishes on several fixed dates so that all can receive the sacrament before the marriage takes place.
In other places, especially when the situation is rarer, the bishop can authorize each parish priest to offer the necessary minimal preparation and either delegate to the pastor the celebration the sacrament or administer the sacrament himself.
I have been informed of at least one place in which the numbers of unconfirmed couples seeking marriage are sadly so overwhelming that the bishops regularly dispense with the requirement of confirmation for the celebration of marriage.
However, in response to our reader, in this case the parish priest does not have a faculty granted by the law itself but needs the delegation of the bishop.
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