By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
It’s Big Pentecost II.
This Pentecost weekend, June 8-9, the second of three groups of Hawaii parishes will make the transition to giving the sacraments of initiation in their “proper order” — baptism, confirmation, holy Eucharist — by confirming children and youth in the second grade and older.
Twenty parishes, four missions and one Catholic ethnic group, will make the move. Bishop Larry Silva has delegated the priests of these parishes to administer confirmation to youth from second grade through high school. Children in the second grade will also receive their first holy Communion.
After this transition year, confirmation in the second grade before first holy Communion will be the norm for these parishes.
Last year, the first group of 32 of Hawaii’s 66 parishes and Catholic ethnic communities made the transition, with more than 3,700 confirmed at Pentecost. That event was dubbed “Big Pentecost.”
More than 1,000 are expected to be confirmed this year.
The remainder of Hawaii’s parishes will make the transition next year.
Bishop Silva announced the Diocese of Honolulu’s move to the “proper order” in 2015 in a letter to parents, clergy and religious educators.
He explained how the sacraments over the years had lost the original order of baptism-confirmation-Eucharist and, as a result, how the sacrament of confirmation had come to be misunderstood and administered to adolescents.
“Confirmation is often experienced more as a graduation from the church than as a free gift of God’s grace” that naturally followed baptism, the bishop wrote.
Because of the “graduation” mentality, youth often left the church after they received the sacrament, he said.
The diocese prepared the faithful for the change over a period of three years with “listening sessions” on all islands and a series of articles in the Hawaii Catholic Herald.
The bishop made the change official on Jan. 10, 2016, with a full set of directives entitled, “Decree of Promulgation” for the “Norms for the Preparation for and Celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation and First Penance.”
Essential to the change in confirmation age is the adoption by each parish of a “comprehensive youth ministry” to replace existing high school-level confirmation preparation programs. Those programs are typically comprised of two years of classes, community service and retreats, usually from the ninth through tenth grade. These activities will now be incorporated into youth ministry.
At least 13 other U.S. dioceses, out of 195, have made the move back to the “original order” of the sacraments of initiation.
Second transition group
Here is the second group of 20 parishes, four missions and one ethnic group to make the transition to the proper order of the sacraments of initiation, giving confirmation to children and youth in the second grade and older over the Pentecost weekend, June 8-9.
OAHU
- Holy Trinity, Kuliouou
- Immaculate Conception, Ewa
- Korean Catholic Community, Manoa
- Mary, Star of the Sea, Waialae-Kahala
- Newman Center/Holy Spirit, University of Hawaii-Manoa
- Our Lady of Sorrows, Wahiawa
- Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Waikane
- St. Ann, Kaneohe
- St. George, Waimanalo
- St. Michael, Waialua
- ….. Sts. Peter and Paul Mission, Waimea
BIG ISLAND
- Holy Rosary, Pahala
- Sacred Heart, Naalehu
KAUAI
- Holy Cross, Kalaheo
- ….. Sacred Heart Mission, Eleele
- Immaculate Conception, Lihue
- St. Raphael, Koloa
MAUI
- Christ the King, Kahului
- Holy Rosary, Paia
- St. Ann, Waihee
- ….. St. Francis Mission, Kahakuloa
- St. Anthony of Padua, Wailuku
- St. Rita, Haiku
- ….. St. Gabriel Mission
LANAI
- Sacred Hearts, Lanai City
The new normal: Confirmation with first holy Communion
Confirmation season, usually the weeks following Easter, takes on a new look this year in many parishes as the sacrament is being given with first holy Communion to second graders rather than adolescents. The bishop is the primary administrator of confirmation.
Here is this year’s schedule, according to the diocesan Office of Worship. Most have already taken place. These are primarily the parishes that made the transition to the proper order of the sacraments of initiation at Pentecost last year.
- March 23: St. Theresa, Mountain View
- April 3: St. Catherine, Kapaa
- April 7: St. Joseph, Makawao
- April 28: Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace
- April 28: Vietnamese Catholic Community
- May 4: Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa
- May 4: St. Jude, Kapolei
- May 4: St. John the Baptist, Kalihi
- May 5: Resurrection of the Lord, Waipio
- May 5: St. Elizabeth, Aiea
- May 5: St. Anthony, Kailua
- May 12: Our Lady of the Mount, Kalihi
- May 12: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Ewa Beach
- May 18: Sts. Peter and Paul, Honolulu
- May 18: Sacred Hearts, Punahou
- May 19: St. John Vianney, Kailua
- May 25: St. John Apostle and Evangelist, Mililani
- May 26: St. Anthony, Kalihi
- May 30: St. Michael, Kona
- May 31: St. Joseph, Hilo
- June 2: Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pearl City
- June 15: St. Joseph, Waipahu
- June 30: St. Augustine, Waikiki
- June 30: Holy Family, Honolulu
- Aug. 11: St. Theresa, Kekaha
- Sept. 6: Holy Ghost Mission, Waiakoa
- Sept. 7: Maria Lanakila, Lahaina
- Sept. 8: St. Theresa, Kihei
