Chapter — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
Chapter V. On The Ceremonies Of Confirmation
162. 1. The ceremonies prescribed in the Pontifical are to be observed, and those which certainly or even probably pertain to the validity of the sacrament bind under grave obligation, for example, the anointing upon the forehead and in the form of a cross.
Confirmation is ordinarily to be administered in a church or public chapel with solemnity, that is, with miter and crozier. But when a reasonable cause exists, for example, the illness of the person to be confirmed, the bishop, wearing a rochet and stole, or even clothed with the pastoral stole alone, can confer it in any decent place, on any day and at any hour.83 A bishop can confer confirmation even in exempt places of his diocese.84
The ceremony of the blow on the cheek does not bind under grave obligation.85
In confirmation a person can, but is not bound to, impose upon himself another name besides that received in baptism.86
When a duly delegated priest administers the sacrament of confirmation, he cannot use pontifical insignia unless he already possesses this privilege from another source.87 The ceremonies to be observed by him were formerly indicated in the Instruction For a Simple Priest Administering the Sacrament of Confirmation by Delegation of the Apostolic See, issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith on May 4, 1774.88 A new Instruction of the same name was issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments at Pentecost 1934 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis XXVII, 11 sqq.).
83 Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, December 7, 1626, and Holy Office, February 12, 1851.
84 Code of Canon Law, c. 792.
85 St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor., l. 6, n. 184.
86 Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, September 20, 1749.
87 Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, April 23, 1774.
88 Collect. de Prop. Fide, n. 503.
163. 2. A sponsor is required in confirmation under pain of grave sin, just as in baptism. Thus the common opinion.89 A case of grave necessity is excepted, namely, when a legitimate sponsor cannot be had.90 There is to be only one sponsor for each person to be confirmed, and therefore two are not permitted as in baptism. A sponsor is to present only one or two persons to be confirmed, unless otherwise seems good to the minister for a just cause.91
The conditions required on the part of the sponsor for validity are:
a) That the sponsor have the intention of performing the office of sponsor and consequently have attained the use of reason. This is evident.
b) That the sponsor be designated either by the person to be confirmed himself, or by his parents or guardians, or, if these are lacking, by the minister or pastor.
c) That the sponsor himself be confirmed. Thus it is established from the Code of Canon Law, c. 795, and from the Roman Pontifical, which states: "No one who has not been confirmed can be a sponsor in confirmation." Hence it would be a grave sin if an unconfirmed person wished to act as sponsor in confirmation.91a
d) That in the very act of confirmation the sponsor physically touch the person to be confirmed, either personally or through a proxy. In ancient times the person to be confirmed placed his right foot upon the sponsor's right foot; now, however, custom has prevailed that the sponsor place his right hand upon the right shoulder of the person to be confirmed.
e) That the sponsor be a Catholic and neither enrolled in a heretical or schismatic sect nor marked by any of the penalties concerning which something was said above in n. 145, 2.
f) That the sponsor not be the father, mother, or spouse of the person to be confirmed.
The conditions required on the part of the sponsor for liceity are:92
a) That the sponsor be someone other than the baptismal sponsor, unless a reasonable cause, in the judgment of the minister, counsels otherwise, or confirmation is legitimately conferred immediately after baptism.
b) That the sponsor be of the same sex as the person to be confirmed, unless otherwise seems good to the minister in particular cases for a reasonable cause.
c) That the same things prescribed for a baptismal sponsor above in n. 147 be observed; for example, that the sponsor have attained the fourteenth year of age and not be a religious or constituted in sacred orders.
89 Cf. St. Alphonsus, loc. cit., n. 185, and Holy Office, September 5, 1877 (Collect. de Prop. Fide, n. 1480). Because of the authority of the Holy Office, the opposite opinion is not probable.
90 Cf. Acta et Decreta Concilii plenarii Americae Latinae (1899), n. 517.
91 Code of Canon Law, c. 794.
91a Cf. St. Alphonsus, loc. cit., n. 186.
92 Code of Canon Law, c. 796.
164. Scholion. On recording a conferred confirmation. The pastor is to enter the names of the minister, the confirmed persons, their parents and sponsors, and the day and place of the confirmation in a special book; furthermore, he is to note in the book of the baptized that confirmation was conferred.93 If the proper pastor of the confirmed person was not present, he is to be informed of the conferred confirmation as soon as possible by the minister of confirmation or his delegate.94
93 Cf. the form for recording confirmed persons in the Roman Ritual, tit. 12, cc. 1 and 3, and Code of Canon Law, c. 798.
94 Ibid., c. 799.