This is extremely disheartening.
I had an N.O. confirmation as a teenager. It meant a lot to me. There was plenty I didn't understand, but I did know what it meant to love and honor Christ, believe the truth of the Catholic faith, and accept responsibility for my spiritual life.
Songbird, you state your comment as though it is an absolute fact. Can you share the theological evidence for such an assertion? To state that all N.O. confirmations are definitely invalid is just mind blowing to me.
It is in fact those proclamations of certainty that make me so hesitant "keep going."
This is where the N.O. apologists really start to instill doubts in me. It's so frustrating. :cry:
PW, don't lose heart. I know this crisis in the Church is frustrating ( to put it
mildly!). And don't dwell too much on Songbird's "proclamations of certainty." Unfortunately, in the case of so many Novus Ordo Sacraments, there is more than enough "doubt," even if we aren't
certain they are invalid. For something as important as Confirmation (and all the Sacraments, really), we need
certainty. Getting a Conditional Confirmation is to ensure certainty. And in the case of Alex117's original post, he doesn't even mention chrism, which is essential. (That is why I quoted his
2. The bishop said something, and then shook my hand.
statement, but I forgot to mention the chrism point after the quote. If there was no chrism used (as it sounded like), it was
certainly invalid.
But in general, what I am trying to say is, whether we can state with certainty that "
all N.O. confirmations are definitely invalid" is not so much the point as, "most if not all N.O. confirmations leave room for doubt." I hope that helps.