Chapter II. On the Minister of Confirmation

I say. § 1. The ordinary minister of confirmation is only a Bishop (Can. 782).

As is openly had in the Council of Trent, Sess. 7, Can. 3, on Confirmation: "If anyone shall have said that the ordinary Minister of holy Confirmation is not only a bishop but any priest whatsoever, let him be anathema." But from the practice of the Church the following things proposed in Can. 782 are plain:

§ 2. The extraordinary minister is a presbyter to whom this faculty has been granted either by common law or by a peculiar indult of the Apostolic See.

§ 3. By the law itself there enjoy this faculty, besides Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church according to the norm of can. 239, § 1, n. 23, an Abbot or Prelate nullius, a Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, who nevertheless cannot validly use it except within the boundaries of their territory and only during their office.

§ 4. A presbyter of the Latin rite to whom, by force of an indult, this faculty belongs validly confers confirmation only upon the faithful of his own rite, unless something else has been expressly provided in the indult.

§ 5. It is unlawful for presbyters of an eastern rite, who enjoy the faculty or privilege of conferring confirmation together with baptism upon infants of their own rite, to minister the same to infants of the Latin rite (Can. 782). - Cf. St. Alphonsus, nn. 163 and 170. - Lehmkuhl, nn. 96 and seq.

Question. When is a Bishop bound to confirm?

Resp. § 1. A Bishop is held by the obligation of conferring this sacrament upon subjects duly and reasonably asking, especially at the time of the visitation of the diocese.

§ 2. A presbyter endowed with apostolic privilege is held by the same obligation toward those in whose favor the faculty has been granted.

§ 3. An Ordinary impeded by a legitimate cause or lacking the power of confirming must, insofar as can be done, provide at least within any five-year period that this sacrament be administered to his subjects.

§ 4. If he has gravely neglected to minister the Sacrament of Confirmation to his subjects through himself or through another, the prescription of can. 274, n. 4 is to be observed (Can. 785).