By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA-The sacrament of confirmation will be uniformly administered in the 10th grade in the Archdiocese of Atlanta beginning in the fall of 2002, under new sacramental guidelines released this month. Currently each pastor decides when youth are confirmed in his parish and the practice ranges from 6th to 10th grades, said Deacon Lloyd Sutter, senior administrator of archdiocesan religious education. The new guidelines will make 10th grade the norm effective Sept. 1. They will supersede archdiocesan guidelines issued June 1, 1994, but will not affect confirmation classes receiving the sacrament this spring and summer. Under the new guidelines, the preparation for confirmation will be a short, intensive, free-standing program. At the present time, a year of religious education, or, in a few parishes, two years of religious education are devoted to confirmation preparation. If a lengthy preparation time is mandatory in a particular parish, families sometimes move to a different parish for a shorter program. The new guideline will make confirmation preparation short and intense, but it will be in addition to the religious education curriculum offered in 10th grade, Deacon Sutter said. Moving confirmation to 10th grade will provide an opportunity to look at and refocus junior and senior high outreach to youth and teenagers, to make their programs more effective and interesting, he said. "We are dwelling on the sacrament separate from them being enriched (in faith formation) and being lifelong learners," said Barb Garvin, archdiocesan director of youth ministry. Celebrating confirmation in eighth grade, the year students traditionally change schools and enter high school, can turn the sacrament into a point of departure from religious education, Garvin said. "Kids tend to think it's done." "In 10th grade, they have a little more maturity. They realize it is a sacrament of initiation, not a sacrament of exit." While they may prepare for first penance and first Communion either in a Catholic school, in a parish school of religion or in a home-school, the new norm will be to receive first Communion in their own parish. Archbishop John F. Donoghue, in a letter accompanying the guidelines, said three concerns about the sacrament of confirmation led to his desire to make a uniform archdiocesan policy. "I am aware of families 'parish hopping' to find a program or age they prefer" for confirmation, he said. Also, he said, some Catholic schools offer confirmation preparation in eighth grade and confirm the class in the parish affiliated with the school. Since not all students belong to that parish, students are confirmed "in a parish to which they do not belong and thus (miss) the opportunity to build a stronger parish connection." "The third concern is the level of maturity," he said. "Young people in the sixth-ninth grades are at a time in their lives that is full of confusing changes and I do not believe this is the best time for them to have a full grasp of the commitment they are to make when they receive this sacrament." The archbishop asked the priests of the archdiocese for their views before instituting a uniform policy, he said. "By a better than 2-to1-margin, they concurred that 10th grade should be the uniform confirmation reception year." He also affirmed that confirmation preparation "should occur through a 'free-standing' program administered by the parish religious education department" and that the "new norm" is that "reception of the sacraments of First Eucharist and Confirmation would occur in the parish in which the family is registered, rather than through a Catholic school program." In order to depart from this, special permission would have to be granted by the archbishop to a pastor for good cause. First penance may be received in the home parish or elsewhere, from whatever confessor a child chooses. The guidelines incorporate material from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the General Directory for Catechesis. Both were published since the 1994 guidelines. For each sacrament, the guidelines include "foundational preparation" and "specific preparation," including topics to be covered in catechesis. The overall goal of catechesis "is to put people not only in touch, but also in communion and intimacy, with Jesus Christ." The guidelines include: Foundational preparation for first penance and first Communion: At least one year of attendance in a Catholic school or a parish religious education program or a home-school religious education program. The specific preparation will be on the sacraments. Foundational preparation for confirmation: At least two years attendance in a Catholic school or a parish religious education program or a home-school religious education program. The specific preparation would be the short-duration, intense program for confirmation. The pastor can make exceptions to foundational preparation. The guidelines also address the distinct circumstance of children and youth who receive the sacraments of initiation-baptism, confirmation and first Eucharist-through a Christian Initiation program. Under the Rite of Christian Initiation, those 7 and older, who are unbaptized or who are validly baptized non-Catholics being brought into full communion with the church, receive the sacraments of confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Non-Catholics between the ages of 7 and 18, who are preparing to become Catholic, will either be prepared through the Christian Initiation process or through a separate sacramental formation program administered by the religious education department, the guidelines say. Pastors, in collaboration with catechetical leaders, make this determination, and those over the age of 12 should participate in the decision also, the guidelines state. Pastors will also determine how baptized Catholic children between third and 10th grades, who have never put their faith into practice and did not receive first penance and first Communion in second grade, will receive their sacramental formation. In the United States, each bishop has the discretion to set the age of confirmation for his diocese. The norm is that it be between the age of discretion, normally age 7 to 16 years of age. A bilingual supplement to the guidelines will be published by June 1 for Spanish-speaking communities.