Catholic confirmation: Were you required to "prove" mass attendance?
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Anonymous
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If your child is currently a confirmation candidate or was one recently, did your parish require some type of proof of mass attendance?
At our Parish, the priests will hand out saint prayer cards after mass. Each week it's a different saint, and each candidate has a card with his name on it. The candidate must approach the priest after mass to request the card, and the priest will give a brief description of the saint. The line gets LONG with so many candidates at each mass! After all the Sunday masses are over, it's obvious who did not attend mass because their card will still be in the box. If someone is out of town, they can go to mass at whatever local parish, but they are expected to get a church bulletin and have the priest sign it to prove their mass attendance. Is this pretty standard? |
Anonymous
| We had cards with our child’s name to put in the collection plate, and needed the front page of a bulletin for Sunday’s in other churches. |
Anonymous
| No, but our parish had the students act as lectors, cantors, ushers, and altar servers. If they had skipped Masses, it would have been pretty obvious. |
Anonymous
OP here Thanks! |
Anonymous
| OP, are you in VA? |
Anonymous
| On hell no. |
Anonymous
Yes! Do you go to my church? 
We will be out of town next weekend and I'm nervous about approaching the priest at a local parish for an "autographed bulletin!" I was wondering if this will be something he's used to seeing, or will we need to go into a whole long explanation about why we need him to sign? FWIW, I don't think it's a very "Catholic area" because most of the local parishes only have one or two Sunday masses. Our Parish here in VA has 4 in English and 1 in Latin on Sundays (I think they also have a Spanish mass) |
Anonymous
| I would change parishes. That is ridiculous. |
Anonymous
lol, this is my last of many children. 5 more months and I will have fulfilled my obligations as a Catholic mother
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Anonymous
No. I just keep hearing things about Archdiocese of Arlington. We live in MoCo. Very laid back process. |
Anonymous
| I have never heard of this and this practice would make me switch parishes. We are in MD and have class and service requirements for Confirmation candidates and it is a two year program. This is enough. |
Anonymous
lol In other words, we are going to have to discuss this at length with the priest at our vacation destination? He is going to think it's insane that we need his autograph to prove we went to mass? |
Anonymous
| For first communion the kids had to sign in at the back of the church each week. |
Anonymous
You technically can’t switch parishes for sacraments without the permission of your territorial parish priest. |
Anonymous
| I wouldn’t sweat the autograph. Just have a pen ready, wait til the priest isn’t mobbed by little old ladies after mass, and simply say, “my home parish requires a signature to prove attendance for confirmation.” Rest assured, if the man rolls his eyes it’s directed at your parish priest and not at you. |