BALTIMORE (OSV News) -- Archbishop William E. Lori is lowering the standard age for confirmation in the Archdiocese of Baltimore to 9. The age had previously been set at 14 to 16 in the archdiocese, typically for those in eighth to 10th grades.
In lowering the age, the archbishop hopes to provide children with the opportunity to deepen their faith at a formative stage in their spiritual journey. He also expects that the change will encourage parents to become more involved in the faith formation of their children.
“(I)t is my sincere hope that, by more actively engaging parents in the preparation of their children’s confirmation, the graces of the sacrament will take root in these young people’s lives -- sealing their missionary identity in the Spirit and sending them forth,” Archbishop Lori said in a Jan. 22 letter to priests announcing the new standard.
The change will be implemented in three waves, organized geographically, beginning in the 2025-26 catechetical year. By the spring of 2028, all parishes will offer confirmation at age 9.
Archbishop Lori reached his decision after more than two years of what he called “intensive study, consultation and prayerful discernment.”
He explained that the study and consultation period revealed two key insights. First, he said, the zeal and readiness of young disciples is often underestimated. Second, the role of parents and family is the “decisive factor” in helping young people grow into adult disciples.
Father Mark Bialek, pastor of St. John in Westminster, has seen positive results in his parish, one of five pilot parishes that already implemented the change in the last two years. Others include St. Agnes in Catonsville, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crofton, St. John the Evangelist in Frederick and St. Patrick in Havre de Grace.
“In the past, we’ve found that confirmation is usually tied to a mandatory process where you have to go through maybe one or two years of youth ministry,” Father Bialek told the Catholic Review, the archdiocesan news outlet. “It’s basically holding confirmation as a carrot in order to get our young people to actually go through the sacramental preparation process or to build up youth ministry.”
The better approach, he said, is to encourage both parents and their children to experience conversion, growing deeper in love with the Catholic faith and participation in the parish.
“It’s a much healthier way to go,” said Father Bialek, who also leads St. Joseph in Taneytown, where confirmation will begin at age 9 next year.
During the pilot phase, the priest said parents brought their children to faith formation sessions and participated right alongside their sons and daughters. Sessions were held on the parish campus separately for children and parents, and also for parents and children together. Many engaged in meaningful conversations about their faith, he said.
Kenn deMoll, director of formation and innovation at St. John in Westminster, said parents were enthusiastic.
“What I saw at the end of our process is that I had a lot of parents saying to me, ‘This was awesome,’ ” deMoll said. “They wanted to know what other kinds of faith formation opportunities we provide as a parish.”
While some have raised concerns that separating confirmation preparation from the teen years might weaken youth ministry, deMoll believes it will have the opposite effect. He previously served from 2015 to 2016 as the director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings in Montana, where the age of confirmation is 7.
DeMoll acknowledged that back then he was “not at all sold” on a younger age for confirmation.
“But what really started to win me over was when I saw how engaged their high school youth ministry populations were,” he said. “We had kids coming from all over to gather pretty faithfully for high school youth ministry events. It was eye-opening.”
Disconnecting confirmation from youth ministry encourages young people to participate in youth ministry for its own sake, deMoll said.
“Having youth ministry exist purely for the function of engaging and evangelizing teens takes a lot of pressure off the youth minister,” he said, “and it will really give them a lot of freedom to dream big.”
Stacy Golden, director of the Office of Family, Youth and Young Adult Ministry within the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Institute for Evangelization, said the number of parishioners being confirmed in parishes throughout the archdiocese has been on the decline for years.
While she didn’t have specific numbers, she noted that there was not a single parish among the many with which she has consulted that has not reported declining confirmation statistics.
Part of the challenge is that many parents are themselves disaffiliated from the church or never received significant faith formation. So, they don’t pass that down to their children, she said.
“We have generations of parents now who didn’t encounter the Lord and don’t see faith as relevant,” Golden said. “So, with the way the world is now -- as secular as it is, we’re just trying to find ways to be more invitational.”
Studies have shown that children around age 9 are open, trusting and curious about conversion and receiving grace, Golden said.
“So why are we withholding graces (received in the sacrament of confirmation)?” she asked. “If we believe sacraments really work, why say you have to wait until you’re in high school for confirmation?”
The Code of Canon Law states that the sacrament of confirmation should be conferred at about the age of discretion. In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops allows each bishop to determine that age for his diocese.
In recent years, some dioceses have lowered the age. Last year, the Archdiocese of Boston announced it was lowering the age from 16 to 13, and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, announced it was lowering the age from 11th grade to seventh grade. In 2019, the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, lowered it from from 16-17 to 12.
A small number of dioceses have made the age even younger, with children receiving it at 7 -- the same year they receive the sacraments of reconciliation and first Eucharist. The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, announced in 2017 that it was moving confirmation to age 7, with children receiving the sacrament prior to first Eucharist (the historic sequence of those sacraments following baptism).
Under the new policy in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, parishes are encouraged to hold no more than six to eight formation sessions. As has been the practice in the archdiocese since 2022, retreats and Christian service are encouraged, but not required. Under the new guidelines, however, those retreats and service experiences are now meant for the whole family.
Another key shift involves the resources used for confirmation preparation. Since existing materials are geared toward teens, new resources will be needed to align with a younger age group, she said.
The real challenge will be fostering a change in culture and a shift in how confirmation is popularly understood.
“In the past, we’ve treated sacramental prep as a head thing where it’s filling our young people with knowledge of the faith or having them hear about Jesus,” Father Bialek said. “This new approach is an opportunity for them to truly encounter him, and it’s more of a heart thing than a head thing. Head and heart have to work together.”
Golden noted that if church leaders expect children to be able to have some understanding of transubstantiation when they are preparing for first Communion at age 7, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to have some understanding of the sealing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as they prepare for confirmation at age 9.
DeMoll agreed.
“I think we’ve leaned so heavily on this idea that confirmation is about becoming an ‘adult’ in the church that we almost feel (as though) you need to become a theological genius in order to receive it,” deMoll said. “You don’t have to know a million things in order to get confirmed. Do you love the Lord? Do you want to serve him and do you want to grow in mission? If the answer is yes, then I think you’re ready to be confirmed.”
