Traditionally, confirmation was done before first communion. This is how it is still done for adult converts and in the Eastern Churches, including for infants. My Ukrainian Catholic goddaughter was confirmed a mere five minutes after her baptism at the tender age of 4 months. In the western Church now, children receive first communion at about the age of seven and confirmation a few years later. This is a bit backwards, and some Dioceses have moved toward the traditional ordering. Church documents and liturgical texts all imply that the original order was how it was supposed to be done, and so moving first communion to before Confirmation represents a very recent development that’s contrary to how it had been done from the days of the early Church.
If one is already baptized and about to be confirmed and receive first communion, then he should make a confession beforehand. If one is not already baptized, then confession won’t be possible or necessary. Confession only works for those who are baptized, and baptism itself removes all stain of sin, both original sin in infants and those who are older, and actual sins committed by those who are older.
-Fr ACEGC
