Chapter IV. On The Subject Of Confirmation

160. Principle. Every baptized and not yet confirmed human being is a subject capable of confirmation.

The reason is that every baptized human being needs strength for confessing the faith in difficult occasions, should any occur. Confirmation is therefore the complement of baptism; hence, during the first twelve centuries, throughout the universal Church there existed, and in the Greek Church there still exists, the practice of conferring confirmation immediately after baptism. But the practice of the Latin Church now has it almost everywhere that the faithful are not confirmed until after attaining the use of reason, that is, around the seventh year of age. Nevertheless, it can be conferred even earlier if an infant is placed in danger of death, or if it appears expedient to the minister for just and grave causes.⁶²

In Spain, Latin America, and other regions, infants, at least sick infants, are confirmed.⁶³ Therefore, legitimate custom concerning the age of those to be confirmed is to be observed. Benedict XIV⁶⁴ teaches concerning this matter: "By the most prudent decrees of the Supreme Pontiffs it was providently ordained that the sacrament of confirmation be conferred upon those reborn in the font of baptism only at that age at which the faithful, having put away the things that belonged to a child, would understand ... that through baptism they had indeed been received into the soldiery, but through confirmation were strengthened for battle and furnished by grace for enduring the contests."

1. For receiving confirmation validly, not only baptism is required, but in a person capable of reason also at least a habitual intention.

2. For receiving confirmation licitly, the following are required:

a) the state of grace, because confirmation is a sacrament of the living. Although a sinner can acquire the state of grace by perfect contrition with the desire for confession, nevertheless in practice it must be strongly insisted upon that anyone existing in the state of grave sin make a sacramental confession before confirmation;

b) due instruction in one who has sufficient use of reason. Hence the Roman Ritual admonishes: "Those to be anointed with sacred chrism are first to be diligently instructed ... concerning the nature, dignity, effects, and dispositions required for worthily receiving a sacrament of this kind."

According to the ancient usage of the Church, those to be confirmed had to be fasting, and therefore it would be desirable that this be observed even at present. Thus the old Roman Ritual.

⁶² Code of Canon Law, c. 788, and St. Thomas, S. theol. 3, q. 72, a. 8 ad 4.

⁶³ Cf. Acta et Decreta Concilii plenarii Americae Latinae 1899, n. 520; Pontifical Commission, June 16, 1931 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis XXIII, 353); and Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, June 30, 1932 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis XXIV, 271).

⁶⁴ Constitution Eo quamvis tempore, May 5, 1745.

161. 3. The obligation of receiving confirmation is not of the necessity of means. Thus all teach. Whether, however, it is of the necessity of a grave precept is disputed. Very many deny it. St. Alphonsus⁶⁵ already cited twenty-three authors for this negative opinion, among whom was St. Thomas. In our days the negative opinion is held by Lehmkuhl,⁶⁶ Noldin,⁶⁷ Gihr,⁶⁸ Göpfert,⁶⁹ Larraga-Sanchez,⁷⁰ and many others. Many, however, affirm it, among whom are St. Bonaventure, though not with equal certainty, St. Antoninus, St. Alphonsus, and Benedict XIV.⁷¹ Among modern authors this affirmative opinion is held by Marc,⁷² Aertnys,⁷³ Müller,⁷⁴ Dölger,⁷⁵ and others. All concede that the omission of confirmation is a grave sin if contempt, scandal, or a special danger to salvation is present. Apart from these three cases, however, a grave obligation of receiving confirmation cannot be proved with certainty. For it was said above, in n. 158, according to the common opinion, that a bishop is not bound to administer the sacrament of confirmation to a dying person who asks for it; likewise, a bishop is not obliged to provide each individual member of the faithful of his diocese an opportunity to receive this sacrament except within a period of five years. These things can scarcely be reconciled with a grave obligation of the faithful to receive confirmation. If such a grave obligation truly existed, then bishops would be bound much more strictly to administer that sacrament. Moreover, the graces conferred in confirmation, although certainly most precious, can also be obtained in other ways, for example, by repeated reception of the Eucharist. Finally, if this grave obligation were present, it would exist for all capable human beings. But no one will say that a dying infant is bound under grave obligation to receive confirmation. Therefore, although no one is permitted to neglect this sacrament when an opportunity is offered, as the Code of Canon Law, c. 787, aptly admonishes, and the faithful are earnestly to be admonished to endeavor to receive confirmation worthily, it must not be said that otherwise they are guilty of mortal sin. St. Alphonsus also at first favored the negative opinion, since no precept, either natural or positive, could be adduced which imposed such a grave obligation; but afterward, thinking that Benedict XIV⁷⁶ had determined the contrary, he abandoned this opinion, which on account of the authority of Benedict XIV he considers insufficiently probable.⁷⁷ Nevertheless, the words of Benedict XIV can be explained otherwise.

Behold those words: "They [the Italo-Greeks] 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." The Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith of May 4, 1774, approved by Clement XIV, has similar words. The Pontiff prescribed that confirmation be received by the Italo-Greeks because otherwise a grave scandal would have arisen there. For these Italo-Greeks, contrary to every law, had caused their infants to be confirmed by simple priests; afterward, however, they refused the valid reception of confirmation from bishops. Therefore, there was obstinate disobedience on their part. Accordingly, the Pontiff deservedly charges them with mortal sin unless they are willing to receive confirmation. Moreover, it appears sufficiently that Benedict XIV did not wish to settle the controversy concerning the obligation of confirmation, because in his book On the Diocesan Synod,⁷⁸ which he published after the cited Constitution, he seems somewhat to favor the opposite opinion. As regards the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, Lehmkuhl replied:⁷⁹ "This statement is an opinion which has the more common opinion against it and cannot in any way become a law." Setting aside this reply, which seems insufficiently reverent, I say that the Sacred Congregation wished only to condemn grave contempt for confirmation; for it asserts: "This sacrament cannot be rejected and neglected without the guilt of grave sin." But all admit this, and St. Thomas already taught it in express words.⁸⁰

From all that has been said it follows that one who, because of a notable inconvenience, delays confirmation or even does not receive it is not to be accused of mortal sin.⁸¹ For example, one is not bound under grave obligation to receive confirmation if, on account of a very advanced age, this would cause him great embarrassment; one is not bound under grave obligation to request confirmation if there is doubt concerning a prior confirmation, unless, however, he wishes to be promoted to Tonsure and Orders.⁸²

⁶⁵ Theol. mor., l. 6, n. 181.

⁶⁶ Theol. mor. II, n. 140.

⁶⁷ De sacr., n. 92.

⁶⁸ Die hl. Sakr. I, § 48.

⁶⁹ Moraltheol. III, 45.

⁷⁰ Prontuario, n. 1225.

⁷¹ Instit. 6, n. 10.

⁷² Instit. mor. II, n. 1501.

⁷³ Theol. mor., l. 6, n. 60.

⁷⁴ Theol. mor. III, § 83.

⁷⁵ Das Sakr. d. Firm., sect. 2, chap. 1, § 3.

⁷⁶ Constitution Etsi pastoralis, May 26, 1742.

⁷⁷ Theol. mor., l. 6, n. 182, at the end.

⁷⁸ L. 7, c. 10, n. 9.

⁷⁹ Theol. mor. II, n. 142.

⁸⁰ S. theol. 3, q. 72, a. 1 ad 3.

⁸¹ Cf. Billuart, De confirm., a. 8, § 2.

⁸² Cf. Holy Office, January 14, 1885.