Cathedral has been confirming 2nd graders for 26 years

By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald

While 32 Hawaii parishes are preparing this month to give the sacrament of confirmation to students in the second grade, one parish has been doing it for 26 years.

In 1992, the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace began confirming second graders at the same time they received their first Holy Communion. It was the start of a five-year pilot program that returned reception of the sacraments of initiation to their original order — baptism, confirmation and Eucharist.

St. Michael Parish in Kailua-Kona began a similar pilot program at the same time.

For the cathedral, the pilot became regular practice. The Big Island parish, however, at some point reverted back to the custom of giving confirmation to teens.

So the cathedral persevered as the only parish that did not follow the long-held diocesan custom to confirm adolescents after a two-year preparation period — a ritual that stressed Christian commitment, apostolic ministry and initiation into the adult life of the parish.

Instead of following the maturity theme, the new process was more liturgically-based. Its primary foundation was the study of the Sunday Scripture readings.

The change was explained as a restoration of the traditional order of the sacraments, which had been lost in the reform of St. Pius X who allowed children to receive the Eucharist at the age of reason, but did not address confirmation as one of the church’s traditional sacraments of initiation.

The cathedral program began as a three-year process. First-graders were first welcomed in a ceremony in which their parents asked the parish community to help them guide their children through reception of the sacraments.

The children met every Sunday to study, pray and discuss the day’s readings.

During Lent of the second year, the children participated in the parish communal penance service. On the Second Sunday of Easter they received confirmation and first Eucharist.

They continued their lectionary-based study every Sunday though the end of their third year.

A May 22, 1992, Hawaii Catholic Herald news story about the program reported that “community involvement was good” and “parental involvement is high.”

At the cathedral ceremony, the congregation welcomed the children and their families promising to pray for them, the story said. Cathedral parents also acknowledged the promise they made when their children were baptized: to bring them up in the practice of the faith.

“The children seem to have matured in the process and join the assembly in the celebration of the Eucharist with greater attention and participation,” the Herald story said.

At the time, the older youth and adults receiving the sacraments did so in a separate ceremony on Easter Sunday. Later, the practice changed to confirm everyone at the same Mass on the Second Sunday of Easter.

Calvin Liu, the cathedral’s music director, said that under Bishop Silva the understanding was that all would be confirmed together, “when the bishop was able to administer the sacrament.”

According to Michael Bauer, religious education director for the cathedral, this year, nine second graders and 19 older children and adults were confirmed. The oldest was in her 60s or 70s.

“Normally, we have about half second graders and half older,” he said.

Twenty-five received both confirmation and First Eucharist. Three of those confirmed had already received their first Holy Communion at another parish.

Bauer said that most of the older ones were from families “who did not actively practice their faith.” Some want to complete the sacraments of initiation in order to be married in the church, he said.

Three classes for sacraments

According to Bauer, the cathedral has about 60 children and 20 adults in religious education.

Three classes are for sacrament preparation — one for second and third graders, one for the fourth through eighth grades, and one for high-school students and adults.

The parish also has a pre-kindergarten through first grade class and a class for children who have already received the three sacraments of initiation.

The reception of confirmation in second grade is well accepted by parishioners, said Liu. “Since we have been doing this process for so long, only those who are new to the parish usually ask questions. Those who grew up in this parish already understand and accept the process.”

When confirmation was seen as the gateway into Christian adulthood, preparation for that sacrament had been the foundation of many parish youth ministry programs.

With that no longer the case, the bishop is requiring each parish to have a youth ministry program that is “comprehensive,” with no link to confirmation.

But developing a strong youth ministry program has proven to be difficult for the cathedral, which has parishioners from across Oahu.

“Very few youth actually live near to the cathedral basilica,” Liu said, “so planning times for meetings or gatherings is difficult.”

Bauer agreed. “It has been difficult to keep it sustained,” he said.

“We try to get those who receive sacraments into lay ministry, as altar servers, lectors, hospitality ministers, music ministers and sometimes extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion,” Liu said. “I think this has been the greater success in keeping them coming to church.”