Notebook
In recent days four people of my acquaintance have tested positive for Covid-19. The four are from different age groups and all have been fully vaccinated in recent months. In all four cases, the positive test has meant that their families and others within their circles are isolating. This personal experience is having a very definite influence on how I view the ongoing debate with regard to the celebration of sacraments like Confirmation and First Holy Communion. I cannot understand why some of our Church leaders are giving permission for these celebrations to go ahead and in so doing are defying the current medical advice. In addition to the recent cases I mentioned above, there are other factors which influence my reluctance. These are in no particular order of importance:
Arguments
One of the central arguments of those who want sacramental celebrations to go ahead is that in church we can safely hold such ceremonies within prescribed guidelines. This is totally true but what happens afterwards may be a completely different matter. While Church authorities cannot be held responsible for how individual families celebrate after the church ceremony I believe we do have a responsibility for creating the context in which such potentially risky events will take place. The GAA faced a similar dilemma last year when local club championship games led to super-spreader post-match celebrations. Initially the GAA argued that they were able to control what happened at games and so they should go ahead. Later they accepted that they were facilitating dangerous behaviour which they could not control and so they cancelled club games. While most families may celebrate Confirmations and Communions within the guidelines it just takes a few to bring the whole thing into disrepute.
One of the concerns around the Sacrament of Confirmation is that sixth class candidates will have gone to post primary school and it makes the celebration more difficult to organise in a parish context. There is also a fear that once gone to post primary school, some students may not turn up for Confirmation. Some of my colleagues have said they were having ‘sleepless nights’ at the thought of their young parishioners not being confirmed! The reality is that, for many years, the vast majority of students have viewed Confirmation as the ‘sacrament of exit’ from the Church and this reality might be a much better reason for ‘sleepless nights’. Personally, I would view those who choose not to turn up for Confirmation as perhaps making a more honest choice about their faith life.
Programme
As one who has argued for a proper programme of preparation for Sacraments of Initiation, I find this rush to have ‘get them over with’ events in the August holiday season a bit unedifying to say the least. Church authorities and Catechists have spoken for years about the integrity of the sacraments. I’m not sure how the words and actions of some this summer will have added to that ‘integrity’.
Some of our Church leaders and commentators see the banning of sacramental celebrations in Ireland as another opportunity for our secular leaders and influencers to put the Church back into its box. I’m not convinced by this argument as I believe the pandemic is way too scary to be used as an opportunity to score points or assert authority. Furthermore I’m uneasy that the sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation should be used as the battleground between Church and State.
My final thought is one articulated by my local bishop on many occasions. There is no expiry date on the sacraments. Let us wait a little longer so that we can have safe, meaningful community and family celebrations of these important milestones in the faith lives of our young people.
Liturgical dance
Unknown to the parish priest the liturgy committee organised some liturgical dance for the Confirmation celebration. Had they told the PP he would have advised them that the bishop was totally against such innovations. The great day arrived and the bishop was seated in his chair with the parish priest just a few feet away. The dance began and the nymph was on her third round of the bishop and wafting off in the distance when out of the corner of his mouth his Lordship announced to the PP; “if she asks for your head on a dish she’s getting it”.
Being challenged
“Christian sacraments should facilitate growth in discipleship. Otherwise they run the danger of being nothing more than part of a civil religion; rites which justify the status quo politically, socially and economically, where there is no bite and no critique of who we are and no challenge to become something else. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ will invariably mean being challenged to be counter culture.” – A Sacramental People by Michael Drumm and Tom Gunning 1999.