This makes sense if one realizes that the ordinary canonical age for confirmation is the age of discretion (about age 7). Canon 891 states: "The sacrament of confirmation is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion, unless the conference of bishops has determined another age, or there is danger of death, or in the judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise." The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided that confirmation can be given "between the age of discretion and about 16 years of age." So our bishops have permitted confirmation at an age older than 7 as an option. The specific age between 7 and 16 is then left up to the individual bishop.

The ordinary minister of confirmation is the bishop. However, canon 883, 2° gives priests the faculty (power) to confirm those they baptize (or receive into full communion) who are 7 years of age or older. And canon 885, §2 says that a priest who has the faculty to confirm "must use it for the sake of those in whose favor the faculty was granted." So it is not permitted to delay the confirmation of those baptized at the age of 7 until a later age.

In danger of death, priests also have the faculty to confirm anyone, even an infant. This makes sense because, after all, confirmation is what God does to us. It does not depend on our understanding. We are not confirming our faith; God is confirming our faith, through his gift of the Spirit.