Archbishop puts Confirmation before CommunionRead the rest here.
By David V Barrett
From next year children in the Archdiocese of Liverpool will be confirmed before receiving their First Communion, reversing the usual order of sacraments in the Catholic Church.
A leaflet being sent to all parishes in the archdiocese next week explains the changes. It says:?“These three sacraments make up the process of belonging to the Church (called Christian Initiation). The sacraments weren’t always in that order, and adults preparing for initiation have always received them in the original order: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist (Communion).”
From September 2012 children in the archdiocese who have been baptised will follow this order.
What surprises me is that the response from these mostly Trad or Trad sympathetic Catholics has been generally positive based on the comments at Fr. Z's site.
6 comments:
Not sure why this surprises you re the Trads. Isn't this move, after all, a return to their tradition?
In my experience (and I admit to painting with a broad brush here) most RC traddies' understanding of western church tradition and discipline to tends to go back to the Middle Ages and not a lot further. The see that period as sort of the golden age for their church with Vatican I probably being the apex.
As a Roman traddy myself, I prefer the Eastern practice of giving baptism, chrismation, and the Holy Eucharist to infants. Why rob them of those graces when their baptismal innocence is unstained? With today's radically un-christian culture our children need those graces more than ever.
Whatever practice is done, let it be done to the glory of God. As long as God is glorified.
I am anonymous. I am not ashamed
I think a lot of more traditionally minded people are realizing that holding off confirmation does little to increase the chance of a teen retaining the faith, instead most see it as a graduation from Church. The grace of the mystery is much more important.
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