Confirmation

The confirmation in the Roman Catholic church

The Baptism, the confirmation and the Eucharistie constitute the Sacrement S of Christian initiation. Baptism and Confirmation are closely dependant. Indeed, the Confirmation is the completion of the Baptism. It constitutes moreover the entry in the working life of Christian of baptized. The other sacraments are the sacrament of penitence or reconciliation, the Onction of the patients, the order and the marriage.

Significance

Whereas by the baptized baptism dies and ressuscite with Christ, confirmed is filled by the confirmation of the the Holy Spirit, as were filled of the Spirit the Apostles the day of the Pentecost.

Origins

During the first centuries, the baptism and the confirmation formed only one celebration at the time of the Veillée Pascale. With the wire of time, Christianity, in its primitive times, had been an urban phenomenon was gradually spread in the campaigns. Consequently, the bishops could not celebrate all the masses of Easter any more nor to baptize all the catechumens who had become too numerous and were at too distant places. In addition, high infant mortality pushed people to early baptize their children and at any time of the year. It then posed a crucial question for the sacrament of the Baptism: Was one to continue to baptize by giving two baptismal oilings at the same time and to give up the bond with the bishop who, traditionally, made the second oiling? Or was it necessary that the bishop continues to give the aforementioned second oiling and that the single sacrament becomes two complementary sacraments?

The Catholic church of Occident practices the second solution still today. To the profit of the bond with the bishop, two baptismal oilings are given to two different times: one with the baptism by the priest, the other often several years after with the confirmation by the bishop.

The orthodoxe Churches as well as the Eastern Catholic churches, practice the other solution. They privileged the unit of the sacrament of the Baptism as only sacrament of the Christian Initiation which comprises two baptismal oilings (in Occident thus distinct: Baptism and Confirmation) as well as Eucharistie.

Signs and rite

The sacrament of the confirmation is usually given by the bishop or, if that is not possible, by a priest delegated by the bishop. (In the Eastern rite, it is usually given by a priest right after the baptism.)

After extended hands on confirmands (those which will receive the confirmation), the bishop (or the priest) oint of the Saint-Chrism. It states the words: " Would be marked of the Holy Ghost, the gift of Dieu".

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