Newspaper Page Text
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Official Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah
http://www.diosav.org
Vol. 81, No. 30 Thursday, September 6, 2001
$.50 per issue
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Vatican accepts bishops’ decision on U.S. confirmation age
The Vatican has accepted the U.S. bishops’ decision to set the normal
age range for confirmation “between the age of discretion and about 16
years of age.” Each bishop can set a more specific policy in his own dio
cese. The age of discretion is usually considered to be about 7.
By Jerry Filteau
T he Vatican has accepted the U.S.
bishops’ decision to set the nor
mal age range for conferring confir
mation “between the age of discre
tion and about 16 years of age.”
Within that range, each bishop can
set a more specific policy in his own
diocese. The age of discretion is usu
ally considered to be about 7.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of
Galveston-Houston, president of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bi
shops, communicated Rome’s action
to the U.S. bishops in late August
and decreed that the new U.S. norm
will take effect July 1, 2002.
It changes the current temporary
norm, which is to confirm children
ordinarily between the age of discre
tion and about 18.
The norm affects only the Latin
Church in the United States. It marks
at least a legal resolution to a multi
faceted debate that has gone on for
decades over the law, theology and
pastoral practice of confirmation.
Eastern Catholic churches, which
are governed by their own laws, nor
mally confer all three sacraments of
initiation together in infancy: bap
tism, first Eucharist and confirma
tion, which in the Eastern churches
is called chrismation.
In the Eastern churches the priest
usually administers all three sacra
ments. In the Western church the
bishop is the ordinary minister of
confirmation.
When the new Code of Canon Law
took effect in 1983, pastoral practice
on the age of confirmation for Latin
Catholics varied widely across the
United States.
Canon 891 of the new code says
confirmation “is to be conferred on
the faithful at about the age of dis
cretion unless the conference of
bishops has determined another age,
or there is danger of death, or in the
judgment of the minister a grave
cause suggests otherwise.”
Parishes bid farewell to transferred priests
F or the past few weeks, parishes across the diocese have been say
ing “good bye” to pastors and associate pastors who have
answered the bishop’s call to take on new assignments on August 30.
Leaving after the longest time in one place is Father John A.
Kenneally, who has served as pastor of Saint James, Savannah, for
the past 15 years. His new assignment is as pastor of Saint William’s,
Saint Simons Island. Father Joseph A. Smith, has been appointed
parochial administrator of Saint James.
Father Michael H. Smith, who has served as pastor of Holy Re
deemer Parish, McRae, and Saint Mark’s, Eastman, has been ap
pointed pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, Moultrie and its
mission of Saint John Vianney, Camilla. Father William Leahy
moves from Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Saint Marys, to McRae and
Eastman. Father Gabriel Cummings, who has been serving as
parochial vicar of Saint Peter the Apostle, Savannah, is now pastor
of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Saint Marys, and its mission, Saint
Francis of Assisi, Folkston. Father Robert Girardeau moves from
parochial vicar of Saint Mary on the Hill, Augusta, to pastor of
Saint Joseph, Waycross, and its mission, Saint Raymond, Alma.
Father Lorenzo Garcia, formerly parochial vicar in Moultrie and
Camilla becomes pastor of Good Shepherd Church, Hazlehurst, and
its mission, Saint Rose of Lima, Baxley. Father Brian Okon, MSP,
is the new parochial vicar of Saint Peter Claver, Macon, and Father
Timothy P. McKeown is now parochial vicar of Blessed Sacrament
Church, Savannah.
Bishop J. Kevin Boland, Father John A. Kenneally, Father Joseph A. Smith and Ben
Wright, president of the Saint James Parish Council, are pictured at a reception
marking Father Kenneally’s transfer from the parish.
Riots in Savannah, 1895
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WRIEST
Mount de Sales awards
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Marian Month Celebration
—page 3
SLATTERY
—page 6
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Photo by Barbara D. King