On 27th. May 1919, I have identified (from Ancestry) a total of 516 Confirmations which took place in Sacred Heart Parish, officiated by Thomas Whiteside; The Archbishop of Liverpool; including the one for the above named who may be my Father. Can any Lister help to explain how so many confirmations could be done in one day? I don't know anything about the ceremony. How long did each Confirmation take to perform. What exactly happened to each person? Would each person who was confirmed need to prove that he or she had previously been baptised? I hope someone can provide some answers. Thanks again. David

Hi, In my local church the Bishop sits in a central position at the front of the church, those waiting to be confirmed queue two abreast down the aisle and in turn each pair kneels before the bishop holding a card with their name on it, the Bishop says your name and a few words of blessing to each one and the pair move away for the next pair to kneel. It takes just a minute or so for each one. It is a condition that you have to present your baptism certificate, or at least say where you were baptised prior to confirmation. Hope this helps. Regards, Tom. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David McWilliam Sent: 17 August 2012 23:06 To: [email protected] Subject: [ENG-LIV] Alan McWILLIAM - Catholic Confirmation On 27th. May 1919, I have identified (from Ancestry) a total of 516 Confirmations which took place in Sacred Heart Parish, officiated by Thomas Whiteside; The Archbishop of Liverpool; including the one for the above named who may be my Father. Can any Lister help to explain how so many confirmations could be done in one day? I don't know anything about the ceremony. How long did each Confirmation take to perform. What exactly happened to each person? Would each person who was confirmed need to prove that he or she had previously been baptised? I hope someone can provide some answers. Thanks again. David ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Admin Message - List guidelines: http://freespace.virgin.net/genealogical.collections/AdminMessage.htm The list admin can be contacted at [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

David It is quite normal for a large number of people to be confirmed at once - if I remember correctly my whole class from school were confirmed together (which was about 40 children).The service is traditionally performed by a bishop rather than the local priest, so you have to wait for him to come to the church, and that may only be an annual occurrence, so in a large parish there could be quite a queue of people waiting. To be confirmed, you have to be have been baptised into the Catholic church - whether that was accepted on the word of the parents or a baptism certificate had to be produced would I suppose be a matter for the procedure of the local priest/diocese. I would suspect that "proof" would only be requested where a child was from a family not well known to the priest, or who had recently moved into the parish. When my children were baptised 20+ years ago, the priest gave us certificates of baptism for exactly this sort of situation and I was indeed subsequently asked to produce them a few years later when I applied for them to go to a Catholic primary school in another area. Hope that helps Antony -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David McWilliam Sent: 17 August 2012 23:06 To: [email protected] Subject: [ENG-LIV] Alan McWILLIAM - Catholic Confirmation On 27th. May 1919, I have identified (from Ancestry) a total of 516 Confirmations which took place in Sacred Heart Parish, officiated by Thomas Whiteside; The Archbishop of Liverpool; including the one for the above named who may be my Father. Can any Lister help to explain how so many confirmations could be done in one day? I don't know anything about the ceremony. How long did each Confirmation take to perform. What exactly happened to each person? Would each person who was confirmed need to prove that he or she had previously been baptised? I hope someone can provide some answers. Thanks again. David ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Admin Message - List guidelines: http://freespace.virgin.net/genealogical.collections/AdminMessage.htm The list admin can be contacted at [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message