La confirmation des adultes en France
Type de matériel :
81
En France, la réception de ce sacrement concerne actuellement plus de 4 300 personnes par an. Si la confirmation est aussi largement proposée aux adultes comme aux adolescents, c’est parce qu’il y a une redécouverte de l’impact de l’initiation chrétienne. Un grand pourcentage d’adultes baptisés petits, mais « non-initiés » à la vie chrétienne par la suite, oblige les communautés chrétiennes à considérer le sacrement de confirmation pour lui-même : comment proposer et accompagner la démarche de confirmation et de la première des communions à des adultes ?
In France, pastoral practice concerning adult confirmation has gradually grown in importance. There are currently more than 4,300 people receiving this sacrament each year. In light of the differences in age and type of journey, the task is to offer these adult confirmands a process that is appropriate to their situation. The true challenge is to enable the confirmands to undergo a spiritual experience that builds on their baptismal vocation and reinvigorates their sacramental life, and in particular the Eucharist. If confirmation is being offered to adults as widely as it is to adolescents, this is as a result of a rediscovery of the impact of Christian initiation. It is important that the Church celebrate the sacraments of initiation, including that of confirmation of people who were baptised as infants. It is through this sacrament that the Church builds itself up as the Body of Christ. The rites of anointing with chrism and the laying on of hands are efficacious liturgical signs that allow the confirmand to live fully his or her life of faith within the Church. In our society, where it is not quite so easy to come to know Christ, it is quite a challenge to celebrate confirmation. The practice in French dioceses rests on the following conviction: the Church puts its trust in that which the liturgy brings to life. On the other hand, at a pastoral level, the question of the order in which the sacraments of initiation are celebrated no longer seems to be a big problem. Depending on the diocese and the choice of the bishop, there are essentially two possible ways to celebrate, either privileging the diocesan dimension or giving greater expression to the unity of the three sacraments. But the present configuration is complex. And the fact that there are a large percentage of adults who were baptised as infants but have since remained “uninitiated” into the Christian life obliges Christian communities to consider the sacrament of confirmation in its own right. The question is thus much more about how to propose and accompany the confirmation process and first communion to adults, than to focus on some abstract sequence.
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