ASK FATHER: If a bishop and also priests confirm at the same time, who is the minister of confirmation?

From a reader:

This is from the Archdiocesan website,
“Why do priests anoint candidates for confirmation alongside the bishop?
The Sacrament of Confirmation is conferred by the bishop presiding over the liturgy. When there are a
large number of candidates to be confirmed, Church law allows the presiding minister to associate priests
with himself in the celebration of the sacrament, by assisting him with the anointing of the candidates with
chrism. Because these priests are associated with the presiding bishop, the minister of confirmation is the
bishop, rather than the priest assisting him with the anointing.”

In this senecio who is the actual Minister of the Sacrament?

Hmmm… in this senecio…. I’ve never seen confirmation conferred in a patch of ragwort. That’s different. There is also a senecio which in Italian is called “pianta del Rosario… a Rosary plant” because of how its leaves are spaced on tendrils.

That said, I’ll work with the “scenario” (?) you sent.

The claim is mostly accurate, but the conclusion needs improvement.

In the Latin Church, the ordinary minister of Confirmation is the bishop. However, a priest who has the faculty to confirm, whether by law or by grant of competent authority, validly confers the sacrament. Can. 882 states: “The ordinary minister of confirmation is a bishop; a presbyter (i.e., priest) provided with this faculty … also confers this sacrament validly.”

Can. 884 is the key text for your senecio … scenario. It says that, if necessity requires, the diocesan bishop may grant the faculty to one or more priests “who are to administer this sacrament.” It also says that, for a grave cause, the bishop, and even a priest already endowed with the faculty, can “associate presbyters with themselves to administer the sacrament.”

Therefore, when an associated priest anoints a confirmand with chrism and says the sacramental form, that priest is the proximate minister of Confirmation for that confirmand. The bishop remains the ordinary, principal, and presiding minister of the celebration, and the priest acts in association with him and by the necessary faculty. However, the priest is not merely the bishop’s “auxiliary oily thumb” in such a way that the bishop alone is the sacramental minister of each confirmation.

Canon 880 also matters: Confirmation is conferred by the anointing with chrism on the forehead, with imposition of the hand, and the prescribed words. The one who performs that essential sacramental act for a given confirmand is the minister of that sacramental conferral.

The Catechism makes the same distinction. It says the bishop is the “original” and, in the Latin Rite, “ordinary” minister, while priests may be given the faculty to administer Confirmation for grave reasons. It also explains that when a priest confers Confirmation, the link with the bishop is expressed through the priest as the bishop’s collaborator and through chrism consecrated by the bishop. The Compendium states this even more plainly: “When a priest confers this sacrament…,” the episcopal link is expressed through his collaboration with the bishop and the sacred chrism.

So, in the proposed scenario:

For candidates anointed by the bishop: the bishop is the minister.

For candidates anointed by an associated priest: the priest is the minister, acting with the required faculty and in association with the bishop.

Hence, a better formulation of the statement at the top could be:

The bishop is the ordinary and principal minister of Confirmation and presides over the celebration. For a grave cause, he may associate priests with himself to administer the sacrament. Those priests, when they perform the anointing with chrism and pronounce the sacramental form, are true ministers of Confirmation for the candidates they confirm, although they act by faculty and in hierarchical communion with the bishop.