Confirmation and Service Hours?

Why does my grandchild have to work before being confirmed?

My grandchild was nearly unable receive the Sacrament of Confirmation because he did not fulfill the service hours necessary to be confirmed. Why are service hours required to receive confirmation?
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The Catholic Church does not require service hours to receive any sacrament. The only requirement for the Sacrament of Confirmation is that the individual be baptized.

The Church also desires to catechize individuals regarding the sacraments. In recent years the trend in the United States and in some other countries is to wait until adolescence to confer confirmation in the hope that this will allow the young people to receive more instruction about this particular sacrament.

Each parish develops a preparation program for confirmation. Some catechists establish a certain number of service hours to teach the children the importance being a Christian servant...

Of course, many do this on their own authority or due to requirements set by others who really have no authority to set such conditions.

...One would hope that this type of service is presented as an opportunity rather than a burden for the young person.

But confirmation itself is not only about what we do for others. It is about what God does for us. The gift of confirmation is given freely as a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as it was to the Apostles at Pentecost.

The Spirit that dwells through confirmation gives us wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. These gifts from God help us mature through grace. Maturity for the Christian is coming to know and love God and our neighbor.
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Father Keller is an associate pastor at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica Parish and assistant director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship.

Send questions on matters of faith to be answered by priests of the St. Louis Archdiocese to Dear Father, c/o St. Louis Review, 20 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, MO 63119, or fax to (314) 792-7534, or e-mail to slreview@stlouisreview.com.

Emphasis added above.

Source: St Louis Review.