Should bishops “quiz” confirmands? UPDATED with responses from bishops

UPDATE 25 May:

Another response rolled in from a bishop whose name you would recognize.

Thanks for the invitation. Here as some thoughts.

1. Yes, I was slapped when I was confirmed – although, it was just a tap. And yes, we were quizzed. We were called on by the bishop, he did not ask for volunteers.

2. I do not slap when I do Confirmations because it is not called for in the rite (although the other auxiliary bishop in ___ when I was there did, and he wasn’t really a traditionalist – I think it was just a hang-over from former days). I do, though, sometimes talk about it in my Confirmation homily, and what it means. As for quizzing, I used to do that, in fact, did it for years. Then I realized that that was the reason my homilies were so long. The confirmandi are always shy to answer, and I would work hard to coax answers out of them. Not even questions that they know the answers to better than anyone else are they willing to answer (what school do you go to? What did you do in preparing for Confirmation?). So, for the last several years I do not quiz. I do sometimes meet with the Confirmandi before the Mass starts, and then I will ask questions.

Back to the slap: some years ago there was a proposal before the USCCB to restore it to the rite for our country. Needless to say, it failed to pass. There seems to be a lot of resistance to “change”.

UPDATE 23 May:

In light of the many comments and interest in the topic, I reached out to a few bishops with whom I have some correspondence about quizzing and slapping at confirmation.  I received three responses back, though I hope for a couple more.

Here’s what I received, somewhat edited to preserve anonymity:

Bishop 1

Good to hear from you. Hope you are well in these chaotic times.

I was confirmed in the old rite – in second grade. We were slapped. The Bishop did not, to my recollection, ask us questions. We were prepared ahead of time in Catechism at the Catholic school, of course.

As a parish priest, most the times the Bishop came to the parish for Confirmation. They did ask questions during the ‘homily time.’ No slap (although I heard that auxiliary Bishop X used to use the slap).

I have confirmed in the old Rite a few times. I slapped them as called for by the rubric. In the Novus Ordo, I did not use a slap. I anoint them and afterwards say “peace be with you” and handshake.

Most all times I confirmed, I met the candidates with their sponsors before the Mass, usually in the parish hall or wherever they were getting ready. I would ask some questions. I didn’t do it during the Confirmation itself, because it had not been the local custom.

Bishop 2

By my recollection, we were quizzed at the time of the homily, but the questions were all softballs. We were not slapped, but I do remember the bishop being somewhat cranky!

In practice, I never quiz the candidates, basically for the reasons outlined in the article. It is a Mass (usually) and the conferral of a Sacrament. I prefer to use the time that I have with the candidates and their sponsors before the Mass to connect with them, and then of course, in the homily to exhort them to understand the effects of the Sacrament , and to encourage the candidates to really live their Faith. By extension, I always hope that the message is heard by all of the rest of the “Catholics.” All in all, I think it’s a great opportunity to put a good face on the Church. Attitude, eye contact, joyfulness all are important.

And the only time I have slapped is when conferring the Sacrament in the traditional form.

Bishop3

When I was confirmed in 1962, a priest was assigned to question the confirmands before the bishop conferred upon us the Sacrament of Confirmation.

In confirming us, after the anointing with the Sacred Chrism, the bishop gave us a slight blow to the cheek while saying “Peace be with you.”
I do not question the confirmands when I administer the Sacrament of Confirmation, whether according to the old rite or the new rite. Since I require that the pastor of each confirmand formally declare that the confirmand is prepared to receive the Sacrament, I do not see the need to question them further.
When confirming according to the old rite, a give a slight blow to the cheek of the confirmand, as is prescribed in the Roman Pontifical.
When confirming according to the new rite, the gesture is not prescribed and, therefore, I do not give the slight blow to the cheek. In this, I follow the discipline of not mixing elements of the two uses but, rather, respecting the integrity of each use.
I hope that the above is of some help to you.

Be assured of a daily remembrance in my prayers.


ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED May 20, 2024 at 16:35

I went to Fishwrap (aka National Sodomitic Reporter) to see if there were any spittle-flecked nutties about Harrison Butker.  They didn’t disappoint, which is itself a disappointment.

I found an opinion piece stating that bishops should not quiz confirmands about any fundamentals of the Catholic Faith.  You know, old, backward stuff like, “What is a sacrament?” and “Who are the three persons of the Trinity?”.

You laugh.   Don’t.  I was in a midwestern suburban parish and I was given the chore of checking on the preparation of confirmands.  These were, essentially middle school and high school kids.  The results were terrifying.  Worse was the 1st Communion prep, which elicited a response from a boy about the Eucharist: “You mean that piece of bread thing?”

At Fishwrap, Confirmation seems to be about feeling good.

It is a liturgy, a moment in which we ask the Holy Spirit to come down and fill the hearts of the confirmands. Creating a situation which causes them to enter in with anxiety or worse undermines their ability to experience that.

Construing confirmation as a kind of culminating exam also demeans all of the prior work that the confirmands have done.

The old formula “fill the hearts of your faithful” is the from the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, which has unfathomably rich vocabulary – in Latin – when properly understood.  In the antiphon and the oration the Latin word for “heart” is used twice, especially in “light” (illusratio) of the rational soul (recta sapere).   We ask the the hearts (minds, intellect which under the operation of the will seeks to understand and, in knowing and understanding, seeks the more in love and be in the union of peace with the beloved) be enflamed with the Spirit, which is the Spirit of Love and of Truth (which has content).

Also, these days there is great interest in doing things the way that ancient Christians did, provided that it doesn’t involve anything “traditional”.  Hence, those being prepared for sacraments have to jump through lots of hoopy stages and endure being sent out during Mass etc.   Never mind that in ancient times there were exorcisms and scrutinies.   Yes, they were expected to know something.

When I was brought into the Church, I was expected to know things.  And I did.  When I was ordained, I was expected to know things, and I was grilled by various Roman profs on many theses we had to prepare.  It is reasonable to expect that we know the Faith. You can’t love what you don’t know.  You can’t pass on what you don’t know either.  As my old pastor used to say: Nemo dat quod non ‘got’!

When I was brought into the Church, the old pastor delayed confirming me because he thought it would be better for me to be confirmed by a bishop, in this case a former pastor of the same parish who had retired from being the first bishop of New Ulm, a lovely man, Bp. Alphonse Schladweiler.  He quizzed me, a little, and slapped me too, and rightly so.

Anyway, there is a funny story about old Schlady and a confirmation during which he quizzed.  At a confirmation he once said, in his booming voice, “Now children, the bishop has been asking you questions.  Do you have any questions for the bishop?”  Always dangerous.  One lad piped up, “What’s a Monsignor?”  The priest at the place was a Monsignor.  Without missing a beat the old bishop said “Why, sonny, a Monsignor is the cross that hangs around the bishop’s neck!”

There’s a lot more to say about Confirmation and about Monsignors.

Were you quizzed?  Were you slapped?  Do you have recollections of your Confirmation?

Meanwhile, check out this prayer.  HERE

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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43 Comments

  1. Robert says:

    My Confirmation was conferred by a newly consecrated auxiliary bishop. It was his first Confirmation as a member of the episcopate, though I presume he had confirmed at the Easter Vigil as a pastor, given my age. As such, the Archbishop sent his own secretary, a venerable monsignor of Polish descent, as the Master of Ceremonies. I have distinct memories of the Monsignor snapping his fingers at the bishop and pointing (rather like our good Father Tommy did recently in Libville) to keep him following the rubrics. I was not slapped on the face, but rather hit gently in the shoulder, which I thought was better than nothing. It was also the First Sunday of Advent, which struck me as a particularly odd time to have a Confirmation.

    In what, to me, is an amusing anecdote, in preparation for the event, the habited sister who ran the program had us line up to practice our lines: “Amen” & (at the time) “And also with you.” She wanted us to say A-men, although in my life I had always pronounced it Ah-men. We lined up. I said, out of habit, “Ah-men.” She sent me to the back of the line to try again. Again, I said “Ah-mne.” She argued that A-men is the English pronunciation and Ah-men the Latin, and sent me to the back of the line. This time I said, “Ah-men” and “Et cum spiritu tuo.” She looked at me in frustration, and I pointed out that, should the bishop decide to use Latin, I wanted to demonstrate my preparation. She gave up.

  2. MB says:

    Well they only want catechists that aren’t ’too Catholic.’ The minute that you tell the kids that using birth control is a sin, the parents get angry. Or if you say that the kids should be concerned about saving their souls and not going to hell, the priest steps in to say that he’s concerned. **Sigh** They want Von Balthasar Catechists. We’re all saved so don’t worry about it.

  3. drohan says:

    I was confirmed by Bishop Bruskewitz, and Bishop (then Monsignor) Tom Olmstead was our pastor, so we had questions. We were also asked Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin’s 92 questions of the Catholic faith, and had to pass or we wouldn’t be confirmed. I think we got confirmed in 5th grade.

  4. Up until the hippy oops happy(?) deformations oozing out of the post V-II days of the late 60s…to the best of my recollection, in the diocese of Trenton NJ under +George Ahr of happy memory (and the last diocese that implemented the versus populum…Bp Ahr was decidedly NOT progressive, bless him) you were expected to know, nay memorize, the answers to the entire 175+ questions in the last volume of the Baltimore Catechism because the good bishop WOULD proceed up and down the center aisle and quiz the confirmandi on any of the questions he decided were germane. Of course, being both in the front because of my name and the good sisters’ inclination to alphebetize and order everything…I ended up on the center aisle, first row, and answered in a trembling voice when this imposing vision stood in front of me and enquired of me as to what were the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.

    And the imposition (which we all approached with much trepedation) was, in 1969 in the Trenton diocese, proclaimed in Latin as the bishop (not a delegated priest) smeared our foreheads with a healthy dose of chrism and completed it with the tap on the cheek. Of course, active early teens that we were, we imagined the bishop giving us a roundhouse…but the tap was more a gentle reminder of the responsibility we were expected to exercise.

    What have we lost?

  5. Sportsfan says:

    This post reminds me of a story I heard about a monsignor telling his archbishop he can go to hell. It’s been a few years so the names may be off. I think it was in cheese country.

    After the confirmation mass at Monsignor Brushawits parish he invited Archbishop Weaklamb to a dinner in the parish hall with all the confirmands. To get one last important lesson in the monsignor stands up from the table, gets everyone’s attention and says, ” Hell is a real place. Anyone can end up there if they fall into sin…. You can end up there” pointing around the room, ” I can end up there.” pointing at himself. “Even Archbishop Weaklamb” pointing staright at the suprised archbishop and pausing several seconds for effect, “can go to hell.”

    Not sure if it’s a true story.

  6. ordovirginum says:

    Yes, to slap; very light, hardly felt it – like the touch of the Holy Spirit? ?
    No to questions, or rather I don’t remember them.
    Confirmation was over half a century ago; 1967.
    Our confirmation class – of ten/eleven-year old schoolkids – was taught by the parish priest for several weeks ending in a written exam. I don’t now remember what we were taught but the teaching must have seeped into my DNA, as I’m still Catholic and have never lost the faith. Thanks be to God.

  7. Elwin Ransom says:

    I feel sorry for those pastors and catechists who diligently and sincerely seek to prepare youth for Confirmation, only to have their efforts wholly undermined by parents who treat the sacrament as a Catholic bar mitzvah and graduation from any faith formation or even Mass attendance.

    Several places have attempted restored order for Confirmation and First Communion as an attempt to kmprove catechesis. Maybe the Latin Church should change its law and practice to introduce infant full initiation according to the practice of the Eastern Churches. Might that help?

  8. hilltop says:

    Following his homily, I and a good number of my 7th grade classmates were quizzed by the Bishop from the pulpit. He asked us to stand in our pew seats and respond to his questions in front of the entire church filled with families and parishioners. 2nd Bishop of Arlington, Va.
    Those were days.

  9. L. says:

    I remember being confirmed in my rural parish, about 55 years ago. I attended a mission church the next county over from the parish “headquarters” church where the confirmation was held; the Confirmation was the only time I was in it. I was among the youngest to be confirmed and was in the back row of the “confirmandi.” During his questioning session, the Bishop walked back and forth in front of the congregation. A bigger kid sat directly in front of me, so when the Bishop went to the left, I scooted to the right, and vice-versa, so the bigger kid was between him and me. He never saw me!

    The bishop questioned an older kid named Steve who was from my side of the parish. The Bishop called on Steve, who had to stand, and asked what he had learned to prepare for Confirmation. Steve, embarrassed, said “Everything in the book, I guess.” The Bishop replied, “We’ll have to find out what book he’s referring to!” to much laughter and more embarrassment for Steve. To me, the questioning seemed to be only a way for the Bishop to show off.

    The actual administration of the sacrament involved a light slap to the face.

  10. Chiara says:

    I have very fond memories of my Confirmation – 50 years ago this month!

    I went to a poor, inner-city Catholic school connected to our parish, which my father had also attended. I was 13 years old, and in the 8th Grade. We girls excitedly selected pretty dresses (which were modest, since we wouldn’t have dreamed of going to Mass in sleeveless dresses or anything low-cut or too short – our parents would not have let us out of the house dressed like that.) We all planned to wear the same dresses to our grade school graduation, which would take place a month later. I went to K-Mart with the money I’d been saving and bought a pair of white patent leather platform shoes with chunky heels – the height of fashion in 1974, costing $12 – which were perfect for my pale yellow dress embroidered with tiny flowers. I was pleased with my appearance, which didn’t happen very often for me in my teen years!

    Our older brothers and sisters warned us that the Bishop was going to slap us – hard – and that we would be humiliated if we cried because we were supposed to be soldiers of Christ and adults in the eyes of the Church. Oh no!

    We were drilled endlessly with our catechism and the mechanics of our seating, standing in unison when it was time to approach the Bishop, etc. It was like a military operation, since there were at least 70 of us. I remember we could not slide out of the pews. We had to leave the kneelers down, since someone always dropped the kneeler and made a racket. So, we had to make a 90-degree turn and carefully lift our ankles and feet over the kneeler as we exited the pew. Which was not easy in my platform shoes – I did not want to scuff them or trip.

    Bishop Cosgrove gave us a very fine homily, which went over the points of the Catechism we had been mercilessly drilled in for months – we even had to write an essay of several pages, answering questions from His Excellency, which we had to submit for his approval before we were permitted to take part in the Sacrament.

    Living in the Midwest (Akron), on the outskirts of the Diocese, we were a little behind the curve, although we had embraced the Novus Ordo Mass (and I still love it). Our Mass was very reverent and faithful, and our kind bishop took his responsibility very seriously, as did our pastor and teachers. His Excellency reminded us that Confirmation comes with responsibilities we must take to heart, such as being sure to comply with our duties to the Church, and never missing Mass unless we were sick, and that we must be ready to defend Jesus, Mary, and the Church always.

    I remember being in awe of the Bishop – I had never seen a Bishop before. And I was terribly impressed with the elegant K of C and the Knights of St. Peter Claver, who served as his honor guard, since my father and uncles were not members. Such gentlemen!

    When the big moment arrived, Bishop Cosgrove did not slap us across the face, leave a handprint on my cheek, or make me cry. He smiled, gave me a gentle tap, and addressed me by the name of my patron saint (St. Catherine of Siena). It was wonderful!

  11. PostCatholic says:

    If memory serves me, in the Catholic ordination ceremony, the bishop does quiz whether the candidates are trained enough to go forward. But he doesn’t quiz the candidates directly, he asks the seminary director or some other person who had the responsibility. Am I correct? Would such a dialogue suffice?

  12. PostCatholic says:

    I also was neither quizzed nor slapped at my confirmation in the 1980s. Auxilliary bishop of Boston Tom D’Arcy was the celebrant. He later turned out to be an almost-hero when the Boston Archdiocese scandal erupted; he’d written many communications about dangerous priests to Bernard Law that were duly ignored.

  13. PostCatholic says:

    *John D’Arcy. Tom D’Arcy is someone I knew in college. Whoops.

  14. Geoffrey says:

    I was confirmed back in 1997, in the parish hall / basement due to renovations going on in the church (making less 1970s and more I don’t know what, but the sanctuary was moved to the center of the church underneath a newly installed skylight.

    Anyway, no slap or quizzing or anything like that. We were told that the Bishop might ask a question or two, but to relax, that even if we got it wrong, the Bishop would set us at ease. The example was given to us that at one Confirmation Mass, the Bishop asked someone what was the Holy Trinity. The confirmandi answered “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph”. Apparently the Bishop re-worked it to make the answer not entirely wrong?!

    Anyway, many years later, I became an instituted acolyte (back when it was still reserved to men!) by the next bishop. The bishop of my confirmation remains in the diocese as Bishop Emeritus, helping out when he can, etc. I eventually became one of the MC’s for the Bishop’s Confirmation Masses around the Diocese, including when the Bishop Emeritus would celebrate the sacrament. I once told him that he confirmed me many year prior. He said “So it took?”

  15. adriennep says:

    Kevin Vost has a book called Memorize the Faith, which I eagerly used as a catechism teacher for 13 years. It teaches the ancient art of memory placement, sorely needed in this swipe and scroll culture. Along with the Baltimore Catechism, which is of course in question and answer format. All parents should routinely quiz their children on what they are learning, at church or school. If they do not, they are not worthy parents. Homeschooling families do not have to worry about this, especially Catholics. But to this day, the “religious education” teachers who attend LARec are still in place at our two main parishes locally, and there is no oversight or accountability for their neglect or subversions. Catechists are seldom trained. Then if they go to a Catholic school, they are allowed out of catechism class. And we all know how that goes…

  16. adriennep says:

    P.S. I should also remind that all of these good catechism books are freely available on Amazon, for all parents and grandparents and family caring to support good catechesis and Father Z at the same time.

  17. Lurker 59 says:

    “Should bishops “quiz” confirmands?”

    No. Confirmation is not, nor should be treated, as anything that leads one to believe that the sacrament is obtained by acquiring knowledge and/or one “graduates” from the acquisition of knowledge. There is also a need to restore the order of the sacraments and rejoin the sacraments of initiation within the Western Church. Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist were never intended to be split apart as they are. As a result, we have a bunch of adolescents running around being deprived of sacramental grace during a period of their lives when they are highly susceptible to temptations of the world/the flesh/the devil.

    Coming from Protestant-land, where “confirmation” is often treated and the acquiring of erudite factoids and “right answers”, Catholicism really needs to not go down that path.

    Confirmation should not be viewed as the reward for acquiring orthodoxy but rather as part of the process of having orthopraxis — of being in communion with Christ by being confirmed in one’s Rite. From sacramental grace flows orthodoxy and orthopraxy, not the other way around.

    That is not to say that bishops shouldn’t bar individuals who clearly have heterodox beliefs and practices from confirmation and shouldn’t inquire if that is present. But it needs to be very clear that we believe and pray for the grace of understanding and that the Lord help our unbelief.

    I think things get confused for young people and they see catechism/confirmation practices as a process that leads to a graduation rather than them taking up their place in the Church. After all, how many young people are on any sort of parish committee, leading, doing, or organizing, anything of the parish or doing anything of the sort in the local community? Yet we confirm them and leave them nothing to do, no way of being Church at the parish level or in the community or “on mission” evangelizing the world. We should not be surprised that so many fall away and find other purpose in life.

    Now bishops need to be quizzing priests, catechists, and parents who are about to baptize their child a bit more than they are.

  18. nasman2 says:

    I was confirmed in the early 80s. I remember a light slap, general quizzing of the entire group. And felt, lots of felt for the stoles we made. I was confirmed with my mother, a convert from Pentecostals. Her stories of those ‘talking in tongues’ were terrifying.

  19. ex seaxe says:

    Confirmed in 1947 at age nine, I think. So yes we got a mild slap, and a few questions among a large group. I chose Walter as my confirmation name, from a book which described him as a pious knight, and told how on his way to a tournament he had turned aside to hear Mass which was just starting in a wayside chapel. On eventually arriving at the tournament he found that he had won several prizes, because an angel had been sent to impersonate him. I found this appealing, and I have often attended a weekday Mass, in old age very frequently, and on occasion because I notice a Mass is coming up in a church I happen to pass.

  20. idahocatholic says:

    There’s so much great stuff going on about the Harrison Butker issue. My particular family is thrilled since my oldest son will be attending Benedictine this Fall. It’s the only traditionally leaning Catholic college with an engineering degree. We visited another “Catholic” university over the summer and they not only fired a professor for attending SSPX, but also kept openly gay and Mohammedan professors on staff. ?????

    As for Confirmations, we have had our kids in First Communion and Confirmation preparation in both diocesan parishes and an SSPX chapel over the years (we switched over to SSPX in 2019). The First Communion classes were always lame with children who literally didn’t know how to do the Sign of the Cross and catechists that didn’t even blink when kids said they’d missed Sunday Mass. In fact, we had catechists that told the kids their own reasons for missing Sunday Mass, like being too tired. As for actually teaching them something? Not really. And they were required for anyone not in the parish school, even us homeschoolers who actually taught our kids something. Two of the parishes we’ve lived in when our kids were receiving First Communion also made it really difficult to for them to do so before they were 8 years old. My kids hit the age of reason at 5 or 6 (pretty normal really for most people I know), so I sometimes had to contact the diocese and sometimes that fell flat, as well. The Reno diocese was far more helpful — they have restored order of the sacraments now, too — and we have no problem with our current SSPX chapel at all.

    First Communion catechesis at SSPX followed the catechism strictly and required memorization of prayers and catechism questions. Before receiving they had at least one Confession and an interview with the priest that included random questions from what they learned/memorized.

    Confirmation classes in the diocese were worse. First, they weren’t allowed to start the 2 year program until high school. There were no exceptions and homeschoolers were required to attend. They didn’t learn catechism. They sat in groups sharing what they felt about various topics. If a teen brought up something like supporting LGBT, etc. they were not corrected or given an explanation of Church teaching. They were simply listened to. Kids also were required to attend the Youth Group which included games and food. The games also had scandalous elements like having the kids act out how to break the 10 Commandments. My kids never completed the program because we were too scandalized.

    Confirmation classes at SSPX included talks on how to live the Catholic faith, thorough handouts on catechism topics, and weekly quizzes on the required memorization. My kids had to memorize A LOT — all the normal Catholic prayers plus the Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contrition, the Confiteor, the Ten Commandments, the Precepts of the Church, the Holy Days of Obligation, the seven sacraments and their definitions, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost and their definitions, and questions and answers from the Baltimore Catechism on the Trinity and the Incarnation and Redemption. They were given written or oral tests according to their ability. The actual ceremonies were with Bishop Fellay. They were separate ceremonies from the Mass and included an hour long sermon on Confirmation. He did the typical traditional Confirmation in Latin with the light slap. My 11yo was actually confirmed in Post Falls, ID this month. Here’s the recording of the livestream: https://youtube.com/live/_0ZlHWHjXkI?feature=share

  21. OldProfK says:

    I was a cradle Catholic who returned to the Church to marry in the Church. I don’t remember being hit in the face or shoulder in 1997, but I remember our sponsors from RCIA drawing the sign of the Cross on our shoulder/chest.

    I finally got hold of and read the Catechism of the Catholic Church over the last year, and only now have realized that my formation experience in RCIA was…well, “heterodox” doesn’t half describe it, I fear.

  22. sagredo says:

    When I was confirmed, they decided to have all the classes in the diocese confirmed downtown at the football stadium. Therefore, most of us were not confirmed by a bishop. But I had a good priest.

    Were you quizzed? Nope.

    Were you slapped? By the awful music and venue.

  23. surritter says:

    I read the Fishwrap article that Fr. Z mentioned, and the writer began his last paragraph with the strange comment, “As someone who has done my share of children’s liturgies…”
    As a layman, how has he “done” liturgies? (Maybe he has the all-too-common warped view that all of the laity are confecting the Eucharist?)

  24. Jack in NH says:

    We had some serious preparation for confirmation, as in memorizing pretty much all of the Baltimore Catechism. The bishop (don’t remember his name), did quiz kids, but by nature of my alphabetical location in the middle, I was spared. But I was READY. This was circa 1966, but I do remember a pretty good whack at the event. My uncle Roland was my sponsor, God rest his soul.

  25. maternalView says:

    Sadly, I don’t remember my confirmation. I didn’t realize that until you asked. As child of a dysfunctional family I have forgotten a lot of things.

    However, I do remember during one of my children’s confirmation stepping outside with the baby and discovering that some boys thought it quite funny to sneak out and goof off. The children to be confirmed sat with their families so it was quite easy for the boys to leave the pew and no one think anything of it (they could be using the bathroom). They clearly weren’t taking it seriously.

  26. JabbaPapa says:

    Our Diocese is old-fashioned size, i.e. it’s not multiple former dioceses that have been bundled together into one.

    Consequently, the Bishop gets involved with all confirmands, both children and adults. And not just questioning people, but teaching the Faith to the confirmands in groups, and having conversations including answering their own questions and comments.

    At the last census, people were 97% Catholic and 90% Christian.

  27. JabbaPapa says:

    Me : At the last census, people were 97% Catholic and 90% Christian

    whooops inverted the % numbers !! That’s 90% Catholic and 97% Christian

  28. Dcn PB says:

    When I was confirmed, my brother was serving as an altar boy for the liturgy and the bishop asked the altar boys if they had any siblings getting confirmed. My brother, of course, gave him my name and I got called up by name and quizzed in front of everyone. All I remember was that I was scared to death to be up in front of everyone and I either didn’t know the answers or was too scared to think. It all turned out well though as I am a deacon now, so there is hope.

  29. Les Buissonets says:

    surritter: ‘Children’s liturgies’ (the full term is ‘Children’s Liturgy of the Word’) aren’t actually liturgies. In the parish I used to attend, where I was a ‘Minister of the CL of the W’, the normal procedure was to send the children (mostly aged between 2 and 7, accompanied by quite a few mothers) out of church early on, into a separate room. While the ‘Liturgy of the Word’ continued in church, the children would have various activities, normally including a very brief Scripture reading, a song, a short talk, a very short prayer, and lots of drawing and colouring-in. They’d return to the church at the beginning of the Offertory; their drawings would be taken up to the sanctuary as part of the Offertory procession and displayed, generally on a board near the altar, though during Advent, they’d be hung on one of the Christmas trees.

    It’s all very pointless if regarded as ‘liturgy’; its real purpose (which no one will ever actually admit) is to keep the kids out of everyone’s hair so that the first part of the Mass will be uninterrupted. (Sorry for the cynicism.) Anyway, that’s what the Fishwrap writer was referring to.

  30. EAW says:

    I wasn’t confirmed by the Bishop, but by the priest who instructed me in the Faith and baptized me. He was one of a rare breed, a saintly Jesuit (they may be few and far between, but they do exist – pray for them, they need it) who was responsible for the instruction of adults interested in the Faith. No slaps involved, the NO rubrics were strictly adhered to. Had I been confirmed by our then Bishop, I would have been confirmed by another saintly man.

  31. Simon_GNR says:

    I was confirmed by a priest rather than a bishop, at the Easter Vigil when I was received into full communion with the Church, having been baptised in the Church of England. I definitely wasn’t slapped, and I don’t recall being quizzed or questioned. I had completed the parish’s RCIA Journey in Faith programme of study and instruction. I wasn’t asked about a confirmation saint’s name either, but I privately adopted Athanasius as my confirmation name.

  32. aam says:

    I was mis-catechized in the late 1960s and confirmed in the early 1970s (no questions asked), followed by Jesuit high school in the mid 1970s. Ouch. I knew almost nothing about the Catholic faith when I went off to university other than, of course, that God loves me, that murder is a sin, and, from a sun bleached bumper sticker on one of my high school Jesuit priests’ yellow VW Beetle, that “I’m OK – You’re OK”. It was only later in life, following the death of my father and unemployment, that I turned to the faith and self-catechized.

  33. grayanderson says:

    I converted as a late teenager (I think I was 19 at the time, but I might be off by a year – I was in college, and there’s some blurring of time) via RCIA in the mid-late 2000s. I won’t lie – the catechism at the time wasn’t the greatest, and I don’t think it was much better at the school I attended (13 years of Catholic school and /then/ I converted). RCIA gets a bit of a pass (one might presume folks coming in that way aren’t totally clueless), though I think the homework could be a bit stronger there. My school…look, I /might/ have missed out on some stuff in the Confirmation classes there, but given that I had one class where the teacher all but /begged/ us to get into a fight with Church teachings on sexuality (longer story there for another time) and was probably a bit annoyed when I doubled down on the Church position, I doubt I missed out on much.

    IIRC there was no quiz and no slap (that I recall) and I’m pretty sure no bishop (it was the Easter Vigil).

    My thinking is this: The quiz should be redundant, and if the bishop is finding that those going through the sacrament are not properly catechized…well, that shouldn’t be something you find out /then/ (you should already know, and preferably be sending them for remedial classes and later confirmation).

    Ideally, I might like to see it move a bit closer to the bar mitzvah, where the confirmand is generally expected to discourse briefly on either the Catechism or some scripture. I wouldn’t expect PhD-level work from them, but being able to briefly expound on some basic concept (I just checked – you’ve got 80-odd lessons with about fourteen hundred questions in the Baltimore Catechism, so I don’t think synthesizing something on a set of several related questions should be a stretch)? I mean, if you send the kids to a decade of religion classes you’d think they’d be able to say /something/ meaningful about their faith and what it means (not just “what it means to them”, but what it means) rather than “just” answering a question or two.

    Note: I also see this as something of a means to an end, with the end being producing faithful with a better handle on their faith – and therefore, ideally, being a bit less vulnerable to being misled later on in life. But I also realize that this would probably be…ambitious, to put it mildly, for many folks.

  34. GHP says:

    I was in my mid-60s when confirmed about 10 years ago and was prepared at the most traditional church in Santa Clara, CA.

    All I remember about confirmation is:
    — the cathedral was literally a “theatre in the round”
    — I couldn’t find the crucifix (later saw it was suspended in midair)
    — some Christian song sung to the tune of “The Girl With the Nutbrown Hair” (so I was singing those lyrics in my head); And …….

    — The Vestal Virgin Dancers.

    I kid you not. I was scandalized. Was so happy to go back to Our Lady of Peace.

    Regards,
    Curmudgeon in Santa Clara
    [you kids! get off my lawn!!]

  35. tlawson says:

    Thank you, Father, for posting the comments by bishops. In response:

    While a bishop has an almost impossible task today, the need for strong leadership (ie, real spiritual fatherhood) calls for strong leadership (ie, real spiritual fatherhood). We need spiritual fathers not formed by the world, and not conformed to the world. Who admit that there IS a world to resist. Not “nice guys.” Not psychologizers. Not “I’m ok, you’re ok.” Definietely not “Who am I to judge?”

    How will they know if The Word is not preached (in His entirety)?

    Instead of studying everything else under the sun, our politically correct, worldly-acceptable, plastic-smiling bishops that afflict His Church today should be concerned with personal holiness and loyalty to Our Lord (full loyalty — such as, when He speaks in His Gospel about harsh things, preach on the harsh things He told us about!).

    They are not credible, in any real way. Not credible.

    “Respect for the Rite” via “local custom,” – yeah, sure. “Connect with the people” – of course, as if they need you (in these days, today) more than hearing, even ONE TIME, the serious demands of Our Lord from His own Lips. “The Good Face of the Church….?” How the h*** can She have any other “good face” EXCEPT HIS!!??? In season, out of season!

    Our leaders are not credible. Not trustworthy. They have letters of learning after their names, but know nothing of Him in His Mysteries. They are not loyal to Him, to Him first. They are not His. As they are obligated to be.

    They let “anything go” — except adherence to Tradition in all its depths. To the unchanging God, to Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today, forever.

    They are fools…but not fools for Christ. They might be eunuchs…but eunuchs for the world. We are obligated to obey what they say…but may we never do what they do.

  36. BeatifyStickler says:

    Not only was I quizzed, I got body slammed, power slammed, headlock and a massive leg drop across my head and shoulders.

    Just kidding, that was my brothers and I.

    I was quizzed but wasn’t slapped. Bishop Matthew Ustrzycki, thank you. Not long after confirmation he covered the Latin Mass for a few weeks when our Priest, Fr. Lloyd Ryan got sick. Will always remember that time. 25 years ago.

  37. bookworm says:

    I was confirmed in 1977 (13 years old) by Bishop Edward W. O’Rourke of Peoria, Illinois. I had been attending parish CCD that year but most of what was taught I already knew thanks to my convert mom. We gathered at the CCD center just before Mass and Bishop did ask a few questions but I don’t recall what they were.

    What I do recall is a story Bishop O’Rourke told during his homily about a non-Catholic guy (never baptized) who had been dating a Catholic girl and he was considering conversion but hadn’t quite decided yet. One day they went to the beach and he got attacked by a shark. Somehow he either made it back to land on his own or she pulled him out of the water, but she could tell he was really seriously injured and not likely to survive. So she asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes, and she baptized him with a handful of sea water, and prayed with him through his last moments. I don’t remember anything else the Bishop said but I remember that.

  38. bookworm says:

    I forgot to add that we were told by our pastor and CCD instructors at the time to NOT take “confirmation names”, just use the baptismal names we already had, and to try, if possible, to have the same sponsor that we had at baptism, the idea being that confirmation was a continuation or culmination of your baptism. Since my godparents had both left the Church and lost contact with my parents by that time I ended up with my dad as sponsor.

  39. John Gerardi says:

    While I appreciate your third bishop’s response that he doesn’t do the light blow to the cheek during Confirmations in the modern rite (along with the “say the black, do the red” attitude underlying it), there’s a part of me that wants to say, “Aw, c’moooooon. Have a little fun! Give the kids a little smack upside the head!”

    This is probably why he’s a bishop and I’m not.

  40. Not says:

    My wife went to Catholic School, I went to Public. We both were taught the Catechism by the good Sisters.
    We had Tradional Nuns and Brothers teach our children who are all grown.
    Our Son just taught a Conformation class. He did his best but said, so much of the basics was lacking.

  41. ocsousn says:

    Is it really a slap? Is it not, as the
    words imply, a form of the “kiss” of peace, or more correctly the embrace of peace? This would line up with other instances concluding Sacraments in their traditional form. When was it first seen as a slap signifying strength to suffer for the faith. I suspect this came along with other allegorical interpretations of the liturgy popular in the Middle Ages. (For example, the Lavabo is supposed to be Pilot washing his hands at the trial of Our Lord. In fact, as the accompanying psalm clearly implies, it is both an act of reverence cleaning the priest’s fingers before he touches the consecrated Host and an act of penance before entering into the heart of the sacred mysteries.)
    I am not a bishop but have confirmed many times in both forms. In the new form I embrace the cheek of an infant or small child but embrace the shoulder of adolescents and adults saying : Peace be with you? A handshake is awarded, especially when one has chrism all over the thumb. It’s also a gesture which implies congratulations rather than the “Peace of Christ” that comes to us in the sacrament.

  42. Ave Maria says:

    I was confirmed at the age of 10 in the Old Rite, thank God. Yes, we were quizzed and I remember being nervous about all the questions the bishop might ask. We young ones studied hard! Yes, there was a token ‘slap’. I chose St. Agnes of Rome as my Patroness as I looked to her as faithful, holy, in love with Jesus and willing to shed her blood for Him. I wanted to be like her then and, decades later, I still want to be like her.

  43. tzabiega says:

    My son was recently confirmed by a retired auxiliary bishop known for supporting the TLM, but in an Archdiocese whose archbishop is known for opposing traditional liturgy. The same bishop had previously confirmed two of my children and, though the confirmation was in the new rite, they both were slapped. But this year my son was not slapped. We wonder if the Archbishop, who even bans any priest from celebrating Mass ad orientem, ordered this change, because he tends to meddle in everything. I think the “wake up call” of the slight slap is important as it truly summarized what confirmed are supposed to do, wake up and battle for their Faith. The kids get it and like it, but unfortunately our hierarchy does not.

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