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.
Veja este tema no Catecismo
Paragraph 1312
1312. The original minister of Confirmation is the bishop.128In 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.129
Paragraph 1313
1313. In the Latin Rite, the ordinary minister of Confirmation is the bishop.130Although the bishop may for grave reasons concede to priests the faculty of administering Confirmation,131it is appropriate from the very meaning of the sacrament that he should 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.
Paragraph 1314
1314. If a Christian is in danger of death, any priest should give him Confirmation.132Indeed 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.
Acesse nossos estudos biblicos:
What is the role of the law in the Old Testament, according to Galatians 3:10-14?
How to deal with opposition to the truth of the Gospel?
How important is God’s love to our lives, according to 1 John 4:8?
How does the story of Rich and Lazarus warn us about the consequences of greed? (Luke 16:19-31)
What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself according to James 2:8, and why is it important?
What is the spiritual battle mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:3-4, and how can a Christian fight it?
