270. Who is the minister of Confirmation?

270. Who is the minister of Confirmation? 

(Comp 270) The original minister of Confirmation is the bishop. In this way the link between the confirmed and the Church in her apostolic dimension is made manifest. When a priest confers this sacrament, as ordinarily happens in the East and in special cases in the West, the link with the bishop and with the Church is expressed by the priest who is the collaborator of the bishop and by the Sacred Chrism, consecrated by the bishop himself.

“In brief”  

(CCC 1315) "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:14-17). 

To deepen and explain  

(CCC 1312) The original minister of Confirmation is the bishop (Cf. LG 26). In the East, ordinarily the priest who baptizes also immediately confers Confirmation in one and the same celebration. But he does so with sacred chrism consecrated by the patriarch or the bishop, thus expressing the apostolic unity of the Church whose bonds are strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation. In the Latin Church, the same discipline applies to the Baptism of adults or to the reception into full communion with the Church of a person baptized in another Christian community that does not have valid Confirmation (Cf. CIC, Can. 883 § 2). (CCC 1314) If a Christian is in danger of death, any priest should give him Confirmation (Cf. CIC, Can. 883 § 3). Indeed the Church desires that none of her children, even the youngest, should depart this world without having been perfected by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Christ's fullness.    

On reflection  

(CCC 1313) In the Latin Rite, the ordinary minister of Confirmation is the bishop (Cf. CIC, Can. 882). If the need arises, the bishop may grant the faculty of administering Confirmation (Cf. CIC, Can. 884 § 2) to priests, although it is fitting that he confer it himself, mindful that the celebration of Confirmation has been temporally separated from Baptism for this reason. Bishops are the successors of the apostles. They have received the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders. The administration of this sacrament by them demonstrates clearly that its effect is to unite those who receive it more closely to the Church, to her apostolic origins, and to her mission of bearing witness to Christ.   

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