Leeds lowers confirmation age to 11

Bishop Marcus Stock

The Bishop of Leeds is to lower the age at which Catholic youth in his Diocese receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Bishop Marcus Stock announced plans last Sunday to change the age at which confirmation is conferred from 14 to 11.

He noted that while large 68 per cent of Catholics living in Leeds Diocese are baptised - and 58 per cent go to make their First Holy Communion, few subsequently receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

"This means that we are failing, as a diocesan family, to complete the initiation into the Catholic Faith of a considerable number of our children and young people," he explained in a pastoral letter released last Sunday (September 25).

"Such a failure deprives many of our young people of the objective grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation, the spiritual gift which provides the vital help they need in their young and adult lives," concluded the Bishop, a former Secretary to the Catholic Bishops' Conference.