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....there is no reason to Confirm so young.

Well, yes there is. Remember, the Grace of God is the chief effect of this, and all, the Sacraments. The argument would be similar to those non-Catholics who assume you can't baptize infants because they haven't reached the age of reason. The reality of the Grace of God working in the soul of an individual is not dependent on the age or current knowledge of the recipient of the Sacrament received.

There are many in the Latin Church who are arguing for the Church to give the Sacraments of initiation in their proper order, i.e. - Baptism, Confirmation, first Holy Communion. In the Eastern Churches infants are Chrismated (Confirmed) right after Baptism and even receive their first Holy Communion at that time as well! This assumes, of course, that the child is a member of a practicing Catholic family and will be receiving the teachings of the Church continuously as they grow - in their homes (the Domestic Church) as well as formal catechism. I think this last statement points to where the problems of the Church really are in terms of ignorance. It also points to the importance of correct liturgical practices, particularly in their wider significance of following the life of Christ throughout the year in the various feast days and seasons.

The liturgy, in it's totality and balance, is a very powerful catechetical tool among it's other purposes. It is precisely here that dissidents attack the beliefs of the Church through their selfish, self-centered, and self-serving "developments" of the liturgy, which is the locus of the Sacraments.

Having been confirmed as late as I was and with three younger siblings, my perspective is a little different. I actually understood what I was accepting and proclaiming. Even now, I understand it better than my classmates in grade school who were confirmed a couple months after we moved (in 5th).

I also think that our preparation was a joke. And I will stand by that and say that a good chuck of the problem with the church right now is horrid Catechisis. I didn't even know the word until this pope released the current Catechism. I had never heard of the Baltimore Catechism - and I went to Catholic schools in all but 7th and 8th grades.

I'll have to think about it some more, but there is a point, I can see, to Confirming and making First Communion together and older than 7. I think my grandmother did this when she was an adolescent. Baptism is totally different. That's a parents' faith and commitment to receiving grace and raising the child in the church.

It also points to the importance of correct liturgical practices, particularly in their wider significance of following the life of Christ throughout the year in the various feast days and seasons.

That assumes that the parents actually take their children to church and that they do not have parents like mine - one completely embracing every liturgical novelty to come down the pike and one who may or may not believe in God, but still does not miss Mass and must have ashes on Ash Wedenesday (don't even ask what a doctor of the church is. this parent of mine could not begin to answer that). That's kind of what I was raised with. They think I'm strange for 1. going to Confession with a wall between me and the priest, 2. for saying more than one Rosary a day, 3. for hanging a Crucifix over my bed - among other things. I bought a Douhey-Rheims Bible and I was questioned as to why.

Oh, and they don't really like our orthodox archbishop.