Chapter III. On the Subject of Confirmation

The subject of the Sacrament of Confirmation is every and only baptized human being not yet confirmed, although lacking the use of reason. For Confirmation perfects the spiritual life which is received in Baptism, and was instituted for all, as Baptism was.

Yet from the practice generally prevailing in the Church, children who have not yet attained the use of reason are not to be confirmed, unless a legitimate custom of places permits it, which flourishes, for example, among the Greeks and in Spain ¹.

¹ Yet those things must be noted which Benedict XIV writes on this matter (De Synodo, lib. 7, chap. 10, n. 8). If a Bishop, he says, in his Constitutions were to say that he is prepared to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on baptized children and infants, but constituted in danger of death; or were to order that children and infants be presented to him when he is going to minister the Sacrament of Confirmation in this or that place of his diocese, since easy access to them is not going to be possible for him later, either because of his increasing age, or because of their distance from the city, or because of the difficulty of the journey; certainly nothing in synodal Constitutions of this sort would seem to be reprehensible.... Yet the Bishop must note three things: first, that in his Constitution he say nothing by which he may seem to insinuate a necessity or precept of receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation at that age and state; secondly, that he administer the Sacrament with that dignity for which the Church wished to provide when it denied it to infants before they had attained the use of reason.... thirdly, finally, lest after he has said that he is ready to confer Confirmation on all children placed in danger, he willingly hasten to the more noble and to those pleasing to himself, and refuse to go to the poor or to others of the lowest common people; for this indeed would be done with acceptance of persons and with the scandal of many.

if, when they can approach Confirmation, they refuse and neglect it.

270. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Whether, or of what sort, is the obligation of receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation?

Resp. 1. There is no obligation by necessity of means. For even through Baptism alone there can be had the remission of sins and eternal life.

Resp. 2. According to St. Ligorius, there is an obligation under grave sin from divine precept, at least during the course of life and when a suitable occasion is given; and he proves this from the Declaration of Benedict XIV in the Bull Etsi pastoralis, on the rites and dogmas of the Greeks, where he says, section 3, n. 4: They are to be admonished by the Ordinaries of places that they are held by the guilt of grave sin Scavini notes, however, that the words of Benedict XIV do not conclude for all; because the Pontiff speaks only of those invalidly confirmed by Greek Presbyters, who therefore refused to approach Confirmation again, because they regarded the first as valid. Whence there was here a particular reason for obliging them to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, namely, that they might thus retract their error ².

² The VV. observe (p. 930, n. 89) that St. Alphonsus thought the same on this question not only in the works of Moral Theology, but also in the dogmatic work written in Italian; and they bring forward these words of the St. Doctor: Let it be noted here that the same Benedict XIV in the Bull Etsi pastoralis declared that those who refuse or neglect, when they can, to take Confirmation while they are among the Greeks, must be admonished by their Bishops concerning the grave sin which they commit. And certainly the same must be said of those who are among Latins. In these words it remains somewhat obscure what he means when he says, Those who, while they are among the Greeks, and below, Those who are among Latins. Indeed the question was about Italo-Greeks, namely about those Greeks who, refugees from their country occupied by the barbarous Turks, had betaken themselves to Italy or the adjacent Islands, and there, after they had fixed their seat, preserved the Greek rite in sacred things, as they preserve it even now.

But that what Gury says after Scavini concerning the sense of the Constitution of Benedict XIV is most true is manifestly clear to one reading the Constitution itself. For in section III, where the Sacrament of Confirmation is treated, the Pontiff first (n. 1) thus speaks concerning Confirmation invalidly conferred: Latin Bishops should confirm absolutely on the forehead infants, or others in their Dioceses (for those Greeks are subject to the Latin Bishop in whose Diocese they reside), baptized by Greek Presbyters; since neither by our Predecessors nor by Us has faculty been granted, or is granted, to Greek Presbyters in Italy and the adjacent Islands, that they confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on baptized infants; nay rather, as far back as the year 1595, by Clement VIII of happy memory, our Predecessor, it was expressly forbidden to Italo-Greek Presbyters that they confirm the baptized with Chrism. Then (n. IV), concerning those who had been invalidly confirmed by Greek Presbyters, he thus decrees: Although those confirmed by a simple Priest are not to be compelled to receive this Sacrament of Confirmation from a Bishop, if scandals could arise from such compulsion, since the Sacrament of Confirmation has no such necessity that without it someone cannot be saved; nevertheless they are to be admonished by the Ordinaries of places that they are held by the guilt of grave sin if, when they can approach Confirmation, they refuse and neglect it. Therefore it is manifest that here a general question is not being treated, but one concerning those who, invalidly confirmed, perhaps even to favor the presbyters who had wished to confirm them badly, were refusing to approach again.

There is added the fact that it is beyond the custom of the Apostolic See, and especially of Benedict XIV, abruptly to define a controversy against the most common opinion of the Doctors without any cause.

QUESTION 2. What is to be done in doubt whether someone has been confirmed?

Resp. He can be confirmed again under condition, as is clear from the things said in the Treatise on the Sacraments in general, n. 206. But someone is not bound to this if he truly and probably believes that he has received this Sacrament. - St. Ligorius, Homo apostolicus, n. 48.

271. • QUESTION 3. What dispositions are required in those to be confirmed?

Resp. There is required: 1. the baptismal character for the validity of the Sacrament, and besides, in an adult, the intention of receiving the Sacrament, as is clear from the things said on the Sacraments in general, n. 230.

2. The state of grace, because Confirmation is a Sacrament of the living. Wherefore he who is conscious of mortal sin must have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance, unless he is perfectly contrite. The general custom is that no one be confirmed unless he presents a schedule signed by the Parish Priest.

3. That the one to be confirmed be imbued with the rudiments of Christian doctrine, especially those things which are of necessity of means, and which pertain to the Sacraments of Penance and Confirmation. - Thus commonly.

QUESTION 4. Whether the one to be confirmed must be fasting?

Resp. No, with attention to present custom. For the canonical laws which prescribed fasting for receiving Confirmation have gone into desuetude. Therefore the practice of conferring this Sacrament in the evening time also has prevailed. - St. Ligorius, n. 184, at the end, and others.

End of the Treatise on Confirmation.