Another US archdiocese lowers Confirmation age to bolster youth formation

The Catholic Herald• March 6, 2025

Archbishop William E. Lori of of the Diocese of Baltimore has decided to lower the age of confirmation to 9 years old in a move designed to strengthen the formation of Catholic youth by increasing family involvement.

Amid growing disaffiliation from the US Church, Catholic leaders across the country are striving to better catechise young people by lowering confirmation age requirements, reports the Catholic News Agency (CNA).

The move by Archbishop Lori is part of a trend emerging in other dioceses across the country. The dioceses of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Salt Lake City both lowered confirmation age requirements in December 2024. Other archdioceses including Seattle, Boston and Denver have lowered their confirmation ages in recent years as well.

“Purposeful engagement of families in the formation of their children is essential in our formation efforts,” Lori wrote in a Jan. 22 pastoral letter. “Therefore, it is my sincere hope that, by more actively engaging parents in the preparation of their children’s confirmation, the graces of the sacrament will take root in these young people’s lives – sealing their missionary identity in the Spirit and sending them forth.”

For Lori, who has led the Archdiocese of Baltimore for nearly 13 years, the current catechesis crisis in the US Church stems from a lack of family engagement, CNA notes.

It adds that after a “broad consultation” of Catholic theology, developmental psychology, and other dioceses’ experiences, Lori said he found “the decisive factor” for young people remaining in the faith was family involvement, which he hopes will be further spurred by the lowering of the age for Confirmation.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) allows reception of Confirmation for youth between ages 7 and 17. Most Catholics in the US are accustomed to Confirmation occurring in high school or late middle school, similar to the situation in the UK.

According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, the normal minimum age for Confirmation is typically around 14 to 15 years old; this age is seen as appropriate for young people to take on responsibility for their own Catholic Faith and to accept the role of being witnesses to Christ.

Disaffiliation has been a growing problem in the Catholic Church in the US. Recent studies have found increased numbers of people who don’t identify with any religion – so called “nones” – when surveyed about their religious affiliation. A 2024 study by the Survey Center on American Life found that among Generation Z women – those born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s – nearly 4 in 10 say they are “unaffiliated”. Meanwhile, young people are leaving the Church as early as age 13, according to a 2018 study.

Lori cautioned, though, that “changing the standard age of Confirmation, cannot, in isolation, remedy the complex realities that have led to the disaffiliation from the Church in such great measure”.

“To be sure – strengthened by the Holy Spirit – these young disciples will be better equipped to face the challenges of adolescence today, but they will demand no less care, support and intentional accompaniment,” Lori said. “For this reason, parishes must redouble their youth ministry efforts in a manner that is richly mystagogical [pertaining to initiating someone into mysteries] and supports their growth in the Christian state of life.”

The archbishop also highlighted that 9-year-olds are perfectly capable of receiving the sacrament at a young age, saying: “We often underestimate the zeal and readiness of the youngest of our disciples.”

The archdiocese’s formation webpage also comments that Confirmation “is truly about one’s openness to the work of the Holy Spirit, not about how much one knows about the faith. Nine-year-olds are not just capable of this openness but are often particularly receptive.”

Though many have come to associate Confirmation with “becoming an adult in the faith”, or as a “coming-of-age” sacrament, this is not accurate, CNA notes. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, confirmation “completes” baptism, increasing and deepening baptismal grace (Nos. 1303, 1305). Confirmation is also a sacrament of initiation, meant to mark and assist the faithful at the beginning of their Christian journey, not a “graduation” or completion of faith formation.

While the Catholic Church typically confirms after what it deems the age of reason – usually defined as the age of 7 years old – Eastern rite Catholic churches typically baptise, confirm and administer Holy Communion in infancy.

The Baltimore Archdiocese’s transition to lowering the age for Confirmation will begin in the 2025-2026 liturgical year in three phases, according to the archbishop’s letter. Each parish will implement the change over the course of one to three years, depending on demographics, leadership capacity and other factors.

Several parishes in the archdiocese have already piloted early-age confirmation programs, with good results including, Lori noted, “fruitful engagement of parents and family.”

The move coincides with a recent study by the Pew Research Center on religion in the US that shows the precipitous decline in the Catholic share of the population that was experienced in the early 2000s through to the early 2010s has more or less levelled off over the last decade.

However, that seemingly “good news” is offset by the fact that the proportion of Hispanic Catholics, often seen as a bulwark for maintaining Catholic numbers in the US, has reduced far more than was expected.

In 2014, Catholics made up 21 per cent of the US population. In 2023-24, Catholics still make up 19 per cent of the population. But while the percentage of the White, Black and Asian adults in the United States who identify as Catholic has remained relatively steady since 2007, the percentage of Hispanic adults who identify as Catholic has steeply declined.

RELATED:‘Precipitous decline’ in US Catholics levelling off, reports PEW study

Photo: A girl aged nine is confirmed in New York (Photo: CNS).