The pastor of my church here in Connecticut always comes out after each Mass concludes, whether he is the celebrant or not, and gives an update and other important information to parishioners. I like that about him, he's very visible and has a good rapport with parishioners, from what I can see. He'll be retiring next year, and seems he'll be a hard "act" to follow. In any event, one thing he shared yesterday is that some parishes in the Diocese of Bridgeport are part of a pilot program to move Confirmation from the 8th grade to the 6th grade. My parish is not in the pilot but from what he said, it seems like the entire diocese is moving in that direction and so in a few years, our parish will also make the change. The way he spoke about it, it seems some parishioners and religious educators are not sure about the new model, though they hope they can get the junior high schoolers interested in youth ministry and so keep them involved after 6th grade. He seemed unsure himself about the change.
I've read all the information about why some bishops feel the need to make the change, even some going as far as wanting to restore the order, used by Eastern Rite Catholics of administering baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the same time. For 99 percent of Catholics in the world, (Latin Rite Catholics), baptism is administered to infants, followed by Confession and Eucharist around age 7 and then Confirmation at the age of reason or after, usually between 12 to 17 years of age.
So here is my opinion, if anyone cares....with all the social media pressures and societal pressures that preteens and teenagers have in the modern world, I think the practice of administering Confirmation should be EXTENDED to high schoolers. Sounds ridiculous...now wait......Junior high schoolers and high schoolers should spend their time in religious ed doing three things. Bible Study only.....yes spending time with the Bible and biblical commentaries which are excellent resources and also they should do service to help others and youth ministry programs can be encouraged too. That's it. Immerse young people in The gospels, Acts of the Apostles.....and the Book of Revelation and the Psalms and Book of Isaiah from the Hebrew Scriptures.....They won't be bored, they won't question the existence of God (not being immersed in the living Word of God) and let the Scriptures catechize them and living out the social justice ministry in the Church, which greatly appeals to young people and college students as well.
NJA
