[Question]{.underline}: At what age ought the sacrament of confirmation to be administered?
[Answer]{.underline}: This question was formerly a disputed one. The Council of Trent decreed that it be administered around the age of reason, allowing nevertheless the exceptions where confirmation is administered together with baptism to infants in the eastern rites, and in Spain. However, along with the gradual elevation of the age of of First Communion during the 17^th^ - 19^th^ centuries, due in large measure to the influence of Jansenism, came a corresponding elevation in the age of confirmation, frequently delayed to the age of 14.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law returned to the rule of the Council of Trent and declared: “Although the administration of the sacrament of Confirmation is conveniently delayed to around the age of seven years, nevertheless it can also be administered earlier, if an infant is in danger of death, or if it seems necessary to the minister for just and grave reasons” (Canon 788). In 1931 the Pontifical Commission for the interpretation of the Code declared that the sacrament of Confirmation could only be administered at an earlier age to those who fall under the conditions foreseen by the Code, which include danger of death, or other grave reasons, such as the fact that the absence of a bishop or delegated priest is foreseen for some time to come. It also approves that in countries where it is a very ancient custom to administer the sacrament of Confirmation to infants, such as Spain and most of South America, this custom be maintained, provided that the faithful be instructed on the common law of the Latin rite, which provides that sufficient catechetical instruction to form the souls of the children and to strengthen them in Catholic doctrine precede the administration of Confirmation. Experience indeed has established that such preparation is of great help for children to be able to profit from the grace of this sacrament that makes them strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Christ.
The Sacred Congregation of the Council, in a 1934 text that is included in the Appendix to the Roman Ritual, declares, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, that “it is more suitable and more in conformity with the nature and effects of the sacrament of confirmation that children not approach to receive Holy Communion for the first time unless they have first received the sacrament of confirmation, which is as it were a complement of baptism, and in which the fullness of the Holy Ghost is given.” However, it goes on to state that children are not to be prohibited from receiving their First Communion because they have not received the sacrament of confirmation.
It must be admitted that the doctrinal consideration that makes it desirable for confirmation to precede first holy communion is not in practice followed. This is in part because the age of first communion has been reduced without that of confirmation having been reduced accordingly. It is also in part for the practical reason that the bishop is not generally available for confirmations in the very brief period between a child’s acquiring the age of reason and his reception of his First Communion. There is also a custom established over the past couple of centuries that is contrary to the code, although not directly prohibited by it, namely of deliberately delaying the age of confirmation to 10 or 11 years. This is frequently done for pastoral reasons, namely that the children be better instructed in the Faith so as to be true soldiers of Christ, and that the children have another goal to work towards by preparing for a fuller understanding of the Faith than the very simple preparation required for First Communion. Since there are strong practical reasons in favor of this approach, and no danger of the sacrament’s being omitted, this would seem to be a custom that could be tolerated, provided that the delay is not more than three years or thereabouts and that the sacrament is administered before the beginning of adolescence and the temptations that this age brings with it, for which the grace of the sacrament of confirmation is most imperatively required.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law retains the same principle, namely that “the sacrament of confirmation is conferred on the faithful around the age of reason.” However, it adds a proviso giving great discretion to the Episcopal Conferences, namely “unless the Episcopal Conference determines another age.” The practical consequence of this is that confirmation is frequently delayed until the age of 16 or 17, as decided by the bishops. This is a tragic delay in the reception of this sacrament, for it leaves children for several years of their adolescence without the invaluable assistance of a sacrament they need to overcome, as true soldiers of Christ, the ideological and moral perversities of a world penetrated by liberalism.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.