For just over a century, the sacrament of Confirmation has undergone an “identity crisis,” as parishes and dioceses have wrestled to discern its place among the sacraments of initiation. Roman Catholic Church leaders have debated the proper timing of the sacrament of Confirmation, with preferences ranging from around age 7 to around age 16.

A Brief History

For most of Church history, First Holy Communion, not Confirmation, was the culmination of Christian initiation. Children would often receive the sacrament of Confirmation around age 10 and then receive the Eucharist for the first time shortly thereafter in early adolescence. This order of the sacraments demonstrated that participation in the Eucharist is the summit of the Christian life, and that Confirmation empowers us with the Holy Spirit to approach the Eucharist with maturity.

By the late 1800s, however, concerns arose that this standard practice kept children away from Holy Communion for too long. There was a growing desire to ensure that Catholic children could receive the Eucharist as soon as they had reached the “age of reason” and could understand the sacrament. Pope St. Pius X decisively addressed this concern in 1910 with the publication of the decree Quam Singulari, which established age 7 as the standard age for receiving Holy Communion for the first time.

Because Pope St. Pius X did not address the age of Confirmation when he lowered the age of First Communion, Confirmation generally continued to be administered in early adolescence. In practice, this meant that the order of the sacraments of initiation had been switched: First Eucharist was celebrated around age 7, and Confirmation might not be received until several years later. While Confirmation had once been part of one’s preparation for the Eucharist, the sacrament was now left dangling just beyond First Holy Communion with a less clear purpose.

By 1917, the Code of Canon Law specified that Confirmation should be administered at “about the age of seven years” (canon 788), but in practice it continued to be celebrated in the years following First Holy Communion.

By the 1970s, the custom of celebrating Confirmation in the early teenage years became widespread in the United States. The 1971 Rite of Confirmation specified:

[T]he administration of confirmation is generally postponed until the seventh year. For pastoral reasons, however, especially to strengthen the faithful in complete obedience to Christ the Lord in loyal testimony to him, episcopal conferences may choose an age which seems more appropriate, so that the sacrament is given at a more mature age after appropriate formation.

Our episcopal conference, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has specified that Confirmation should be celebrated between the ages of 7 and about 16. Although over a dozen dioceses have moved toward a “restored order” of the sacraments, placing Confirmation just before First Communion around age 7, most dioceses still opt to celebrate Confirmation sometime during the teenage years to extend formation. Here in the Archdiocese of Washington, the norm for some time has been to receive the sacrament in either 7th or 8th grade, with most parishes opting to celebrate the sacrament at the end of 8th grade.

Confirmation: Trophy or Toolbox?

The celebration of Confirmation at the end of 8th grade has, in many places, effectively turned the sacrament into a kind of graduation from faith formation. Right when students are participating in their 8th-grade graduation ceremonies to mark the end of middle school, many parishes are hosting Confirmation ceremonies, as if to celebrate the end of their education in the Catholic faith.

While the sacrament is meant to signify the beginning of a more mature Christian life, one could easily get the impression that it is merely an award for checking all the religious boxes that need to be checked. After receiving this sacramental “trophy,” many drift away from participation in parish life. Pope Francis has expressed this concern in these words:

The problem is how to ensure that the Sacrament of Confirmation is not reduced, in practice, to “last rites,” that is, the Sacrament of “departure” from the Church. It is said that it is the farewell Sacrament, because once young people receive it they go away and then return for marriage. This is what people say… but we must ensure that it is rather the Sacrament of the beginning of active participation in the life of the Church (General Audience, 30 October 2024).

These concerns about Confirmation are not new, and efforts have been made to address them. Over a decade ago, St. Aloysius Church shifted the timing of the sacrament of Confirmation from the end of 8th grade to the beginning of 9th grade in an attempt to mentally separate Confirmation from 8th-grade graduation. We began using the summer months to meet individually with every Confirmation candidate to encourage them in faith as they prepared for the sacrament, and we used the beginning of the 9th-grade year to offer final sacramental formation.

Although these efforts have borne some fruit, reasonable parent concerns have also emerged. Some have expressed frustration that the sacrament has been unnecessarily delayed. Others have shared feedback that the beginning of freshman year is already quite busy and stressful for teens, and therefore not the best time for additional formation and festivities.

Based on this parent feedback, St. Aloysius Church has decided to shift Confirmation from the beginning of the 9th-grade year to the beginning of the 8th-grade year. This shift maintains the separation between Confirmation and graduation while continuing to allow us to use the summer months for individual meetings. To make this transition, Confirmation in Fall 2026 will include both current 7th-grade and current 8th-grade students. Instruction for 8th grade will continue through May, following the celebration of the sacrament.

The continuation of formation after Confirmation is a very important part of this shift. Even though 8th graders will receive Confirmation in the fall, we are asking our Families of Faith students to commit to attending classes on Sunday mornings through the end of the academic year. Confirmation gives us the power of the Holy Spirit, and our plan is to use the remainder of the 8th-grade year to help students learn how to use that gift to live mature Catholic lives.

Placing the sacrament at the beginning of the 8th-grade year helps us to underscore that Confirmation is not a “trophy” to celebrate the completion of formation, but is more of a “toolbox” that we must learn to use. Jesus, who equipped the Apostles with the gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, equips us with those same gifts today in Confirmation, and we must train to use them to take up our roles in the life and mission of the Church.

Allow me to use an unusual analogy. Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Imagine a teen enrolling in a training program to learn how to use power tools, such as circular saws, power drills, and sanders. They spend months in the classroom reading about the tools’ mechanical specifications and hearing about people who have used them to build amazing things. Once they have completed a reasonable amount of reading, they attend a certification ceremony, receive a brand-new, shrink-wrapped set of power tools, and are sent on their way, with the hope that they will figure out how to use those tools on their own.

Would that classroom time be effective? If the students never had access to the tools during training, chances are they would not be well prepared to use them at all. There is a reasonable chance that those shrink-wrapped tools would never be taken out of the box.

When Confirmation is placed at the very end of faith formation, we risk doing something similarly ineffective. We spend months in class talking about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit before students have fully received those gifts in the sacrament of Confirmation. Then, once they receive the sacrament, we send them on their way without any further formation, hoping they will learn on their own to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the mission of the Church.

By celebrating Confirmation at the beginning of the 8th-grade year, we are intentionally leaving time for formation after the sacrament. This allows us to help students learn how to use the spiritual “power tools” that Confirmation provides to cooperate in the Christ’s work of building up the kingdom of God.

We hope that this change will better reflect the true purpose of the sacrament of Confirmation, which is a sacrament of “beginning,” not of “ending.” Our hope is that this shift will help communicate that Confirmation is not a mere trophy of completion, but a spiritual toolbox given to help us live as lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church.