Confirmation before marriage

by Michael Shackleton · August 10, 2009

A priest told me that the previous reception of the sacrament of confirmation is no longer a prerequisite for a marriage to be recognised by the Church. Is this so? Please give more background on the history of this sacrament, such as the distinction between baptism and confirmation, the age of confirmation for those who have had baptism as infants and�the reservation of administration to bishops.

I� can find nothing to support this priest�s assertion. Canon 1065.1 states: �Catholics who have not yet received the sacrament of confirmation are to receive it before being admitted to marriage, if this can be done without grave inconvenience.� I can find no recent change to this in the wider Church or in Southern Africa.

Baptism and confirmation are distinct sacraments. We see this in Acts 8:14-17 where Peter and John went to Samaria and found that some converts had been baptised but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. �They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.�

It seems to have been the norm in the early days�for adults and infants to be confirmed straight after baptism. The minister of the sacrament was the bishop who laid hands on them. Chrism, that is aromatic olive oil consecrated by the bishop, soon became attached to the rite, as is the practice today.

But as parishes evolved and multiplied, it became impossible for the bishop to be present at every baptism, so�the bishop confirmed in each parish every so often. Thus, the separation of the two sacraments occurred in the Western Church. The Eastern Church preserved the simultaneous administration by a priest of the two sacraments for infants. The essential connection with the bishop was by his having consecrated the chrism for the purpose.

As head of the local Church, the bishop is the proper minister of this sacrament which�gives�the grace�to profess and practise the faith publicly as a member of the Church. The bishop can delegate his role to priests; adult converts are generally confirmed by the priest who receives them into the Church.

Because of the separation of baptism�from confirmation in the West, there has never been a fixed�age for children to be confirmed. Doing what is done in one�s own diocese is the usual thing, but it is essential that the�candidate should be mature enough to understand the responsibilities of a life-long commitment to the Church.