Actually, the shortest answer to this question is yes, only the bishop has the power to confirm. Simple priests do not.
Since the days of the early Church, when the Holy Spirit gave Himself to the Apostles at Pentecost, the Apostles and their successors have been the sole dispensers of the Third Person’s mark in our souls. The Apostles used to travel to areas where people had been baptized by disciples, in order to confer Confirmation on the newly-baptized.
So…why did we say yes and no?
While only the bishop has the power to confirm, he can delegate this power to a priest. This frequently happens in the case of adult converts, who usually receive Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion all at once from their parish priest. It can also happen in the case of missionaries to new countries, where no local bishop is available.
Our own nation has benefited from the bishop’s permission to delegate. When the United States were still fledgling colonies, many American Catholics lived and died without ever being confirmed. As a new and rapidly expanding frontier, it was not humanly possible for the Church to provide the customary hierarchical structure quickly enough. She was able, however, to grant the extraordinary power of Confirmation to some of the traveling missionaries.
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