Diocese to offer two adult confirmation celebrations

Intermountain Catholic

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This year, Bishop Wester will preside at two different Masses in the Cathedral of the Madeleine at which adults will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. IC file photo

SALT LAKE CITY – The Catholic Church teaches us that "Confirmation is a true sacrament instituted by Christ and different from baptism. It is administered by laying-on of hands and anointing with chrism accompanied by prayer. The chrism is blessed by the bishop and the bishop administers the sacrament. All baptized persons can and should be confirmed. The effect of the Sacrament of Confirmation is to give strength in faith and for the confession of faith and to impress an indelible character."

Bishop John C. Wester travels throughout the year to parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, conferring this sacrament on young people. However, two upcoming celebrations will celebrate this sacrament for adult Catholics who for various reasons haven’t yet been confirmed.

"Bishop Wester will also celebrate the Sacrament of Eucharist for those Catholics seeking to complete their Christian initiation," said Ruth Dillon, the diocesan director of liturgy.

The adults preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation are called Candidates.

"This is a great opportunity," said Maria Elena Leal, a Candidate from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Salt Lake City.

Leal is originally from Aguascalientes, Mexico and although she was raised in a Catholic family, when she arrived in the United States her religious formation was delayed.

"So many things got kind of messed in my life that my mother put our religion in hold, so I never got my confirmation," said Leal who is now 38 years old.

Having to deal with language barriers, economical stresses, and other challenges that many immigrants face, she also was unable to get married in the Church.

"We [she and her husband] have formed a family and I feel that we need to step up and be the best example to our kids, so we want to do the things right and I want to do my confirmation and then get married in the church," said Leal.

The couple has been together for 20 years.

The Catechism’s section on Confirmation says that Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Its effects are to:

• Root us more deeply in divine filiation (being children of God);

• Unites us more firmly to Christ;

• Increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;

• Strengthens our bond with the Church;

• Associates us more closely to her mission of bearing witness to Christ;

• Helps us and more strictly obliges us to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.

Two Adult Confirmations are scheduled this year, both at the Cathedral of the Madeleine:

Saturday, May 18

, 5 p.m. for the Salt Lake, Eastern and Southwestern deaneries and Saint Francis Xavier and Saint John the Baptist parishes.

Saturday, June 1,

5 p.m. for the Northern and Wasatch deaneries.

If an individual is not able to attend either of the Confirmations scheduled, should contact their pastor to make other arrangements, Dillon said.

For more information, contact your parish office; the phone number can be found at www.dioslc.org in the parishes icon under diocese.

WHICH ADULTS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONFIRMATION?

Those adults who:

• are baptized in the Roman Catholic Church

• are not presently barred from the sacraments (most commonly for reasons relating to an irregular marriage situation)

• are capable of renewing their baptismal promises.

Generally, this guideline refers to persons who are baptized Catholics who have received adequate catechesis within the Catholic community. These are active adult Catholics who for some reason did not receive Confirmation at the usual age. Proof of their baptism comes in the form of a copy of their baptismal certificate obtained from their parish of baptism.