Dear John:

If a person wishing to convert to the Catholic Church intends to violate Church teaching on birth control, or disagrees with the Marian Doctrines, then that person is not eligible to be confirmed in the Catholic Church.

In fact, that person's sponsor has a serious and moral obligation before God and the Church to NOT recommend such a person for confirmation.

If such a person was confirmed anyway, the confirmation would be valid, but that person would be in a state of serious sin by practicing birth control.

If the person denied a dogma of the faith, like the perpetual virginity, then technically the person would be in a state of automatic excommunication as a heretic.

So, I guess it could be possible to be confirmed at 11:05 am and excommunicated at 11:06 :)

Bottomline: if a person doesn't agree with the Church, don't join. To join like that would be living a lie and risking one's soul to hell. In such a circumstance it would be better to not join.

As a sponsor I would advise the person to wait another year to think about all this. If they can never come to agree with the Church, then I would advise them to withdraw on their own. But, if they refused to withdraw on their own, it would be my duty to not recommend them for confirmation. If the parish priest sent them on for confirmation anyway, that would be on his head. My conscience and standing before God will be clear.

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The priest in confession is the alter Christos, which means "another Christ." This is literal. The priest has been given the power of forgiveness by virtue of his holy orders and consecration as a priest. This delegation of power was granted to priests by Jesus Himself in Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23.

This is not symbolic or merely psychological, this is spiritually and ontologically real and literal.

Confession to a human being also has its psychological effects which is probably one reason God instituted the Sacrament of Confession. As one little boy said, "Sometimes you need God with skin on."

That is the nature of all Sacraments. A Sacrament is a physical manifestation of an invisible reality. Human beings are sacramental people. We relate to the world though our senses. Thus when we hear with our senses, "I absolve you," it gives us a "knowing" that mere intellectual assent or emotional feelings of forgiveness cannot match.

Even Baptists understand this human need. They preach about a concept of "accountability partners". An accountability partner is a person whom with you can confide everything and can hold you accountable to avoid sin.

We Catholics have a built-in accountability partner -- a priest.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary