Article III: On Ceremonies and Sponsors

— By canon 789 those to be confirmed, if they are many, are admonished that they be present at the first imposition or extension of hands, and that they not depart before the rite has been completed.

— On Time and Place. 1. Confirmation can be ministered at any time; it is most fitting to administer it in the week of Pentecost.

2. The proper place of administration is a church; yet the minister, for a cause which he has judged just and reasonable, can confer this sacrament in any other decent place (c. 791). And it is lawful for a bishop to administer confirmation also in exempt places of his diocese.

— On Ceremonies. 1. Administration can be solemn or private: solemn, with miter, staff, and cope; private, without miter and cope, or without miter and staff. From a just cause it is lawful to administer the sacrament privately. In public administration, they judge it mortal if all sacred ornaments are omitted; but not if only some one is omitted.

But a delegated presbyter cannot use pontifical vestments unless he has their use from another source, but he must wear at least stole and alb: cf. the Appendix of the Ritual. And he is ordered to read aloud to the people, in the vernacular language, the indult by which he received the faculty. Those who are instructed with this power from common law have nothing to read aloud.

2. "Omission of the prayers which precede confirmation is to be held grave" (Lehmkuhl, II, 138); but omission of the blow is light.

— A sponsor is to be used under grave sin, if he can be had. If he cannot be had, confirmation without a sponsor becomes licit.

That someone be validly a sponsor, it is necessary: "1° that he himself also be confirmed, have attained the use of reason, and have the intention of carrying out that function; 2° that he be ascribed to no heretical or schismatic sect, nor noted by a declaratory or condemnatory sentence with any of the penalties of which in c. 765, n. 2; 3° that he not be father, mother, spouse of the one to be confirmed; 4° that he be designated by the one to be confirmed or his parents or guardians, or, if these are lacking or refuse, by the minister or by the pastor; 5° that in the very act of confirmation he, by himself or through a procurator, physically touch the one to be confirmed" (c. 795).

The penalties of which in c. 765, n. 2, have been indicated in n. 253, where the sponsor of baptism was treated.

Because of the manner in which they are distinguished in the enumeration, the one to be confirmed, the parents, and the guardians are absolutely competent to designate the sponsor, nor is the order among them required for value; while the minister and pastor can merely supply the defect.

4. That someone be assumed licitly as sponsor, it is demanded that he be distinct from the sponsor of baptism, unless confirmation legitimately is done immediately after baptism; and of the same sex as the one to be confirmed. But these are not required under grave sin, so that a reasonable cause, in the judgment of the minister, excuses from observing these conditions.

But besides, the prescriptions that someone be licitly a sponsor of baptism are to be observed.

Before the Code, a general rule forbade the same sponsor from presenting more than two at the same time, unless the bishop judged that more could not be found. And on July 12, 1883, the Sacred Congregation of the Council refused to approve the contrary custom of the diocese of Fiesole, which was almost centenary. The Code establishes the same, but admits the excuse of a just cause. For from the nature of the thing, the office of sponsor cannot be seriously undertaken toward many. Yet from another side, reasons to be approved, even of a general order, can stand in the way lest several be assumed: as if individual sponsors with the confirmed are accustomed to celebrate the festive day in a manner little fitting. Nor, with the very tempered manner attended to by which the necessity of having a sponsor of confirmation is imposed, is the matter judged grave.

The Code also prescribes that only one sponsor be assigned to each one to be confirmed (c. 794, §2).

In places of missions where confirmed persons are lacking, it was responded by the Sacred Congregation that some be confirmed without sponsor and become sponsors of the rest.

— Between sponsor and confirmed there arises, from valid confirmation, spiritual relationship, from which the sponsor must have the confirmed person perpetually commended to himself and, according to his strength, when parents, guardians, and the sponsor of baptism are lacking, must care for his Christian instruction (c. 797). But this relationship induces no impediment of matrimony (c. 1079).

— Prescribed Annotations. 1. Confirmation is to be inscribed in the book of the baptized itself; 2. also in a peculiar book the names of the minister, those confirmed, parents and sponsors, the day and place of confirmation are to be noted by the pastor. The minister must, by himself or through another, make the absent pastor certain as soon as possible; 3. when prejudice is done to no one, conferred confirmation is proved by one witness who is above every exception, or by the oath of the confirmed person himself, unless he was confirmed in infant age.

— I. Confirmation is a sacrament of the New Law by which, through anointing with chrism, under the prescribed form of words, performed by his own hand by a suitable minister on the forehead of the baptized person, the Holy Spirit is given to him for strength.

The essential remote matter is chrism consecrated by a bishop, although in the article of death conditioned conferral with oil alone can be attempted. Recent chrism, that is, of the current year, is to be used under grave sin. The proximate matter is anointing on the forehead performed by the very hand of the competent minister. The true and necessary form in the Latin Church is: "I sign you with the sign of the cross and confirm you with the chrism of salvation in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." For the essence the words probably suffice: "I sign you with the chrism of salvation."

II. The ordinary minister of valid confirmation is every and only bishop; the extraordinary minister, from faculty of common law or apostolic indult, can be any priest. All presbyters of the Greek rite have the faculty; in the Latin Church, an abbot or prelate nullius, an Apostolic Vicar and Prefect, while the function lasts and in his own territory, and Cardinals. The Ordinary must, under grave sin, provide at least within any five-year period, insofar as can be done, that this sacrament be ministered to his subjects.

III. The subject of valid confirmation is every and only baptized person not yet confirmed; of licit and fruitful confirmation, an adult in the state of grace, one perpetually insane, and an infant. Nevertheless, unless a just and grave cause advises that it be done otherwise, administration of confirmation in the Latin Church is conveniently deferred to around the seventh year.

IV. The necessity of the sacrament is not of means, but of precept, insofar as negligence of occasion is venial.

V. Confirmation can be ministered at any time and, for a reasonable cause, in any place. Solemn confirmation is done with miter, staff, and cope; private confirmation, without miter and cope or without miter and staff, is lawful from a just cause. In solemn administration, to omit all sacred ornaments would be grave. A presbyter, if he lacks use of Pontificals, uses at least stole and alb. The prayers before confirmation are to be recited under grave sin.

A sponsor is to be used under grave sin, if he can be had. For value, he must be confirmed and fulfill the conditions of a sponsor of baptism. For liceity, let him be distinct from the sponsors of baptism, unless confirmation immediately follows baptism.

VI. From confirmation there arises between sponsor and confirmed a spiritual relationship, which nevertheless, contrary to relationship arisen from baptism, induces no impediment of matrimony.

VII. Confirmation is to be annotated by the pastor in the book of the baptized and in a peculiar book.