Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments
on First Communion
The pages of the Gospel show clearly how special
was that love for children which Christ showed while He was on earth. It was
His delight to be in their midst; He was wont to lay His hands on them; He
embraced them; and He blessed them. At the same time He was not pleased when
they would be driven away by the disciples, whom He rebuked gravely with these
words: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for of such
is the kingdom of God.” It is clearly seen how highly He held their innocence
and the open simplicity of their souls on that occasion when He called a little
child to Him and said to the disciples: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn
and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of
heaven….And whoever receives one such little child for my sake, receives me.”
The Catholic
Church, bearing this in mind, took care even from the beginning to bring the
little ones to Christ through Eucharistic Communion, which was administered
even to nursing infants. This, as was prescribed in almost all ancient Ritual
books, was done at Baptism until the thirteenth century, and this custom
prevailed in some places even later. It is still found in the Greek and
Oriental Churches. But to remove the danger that infants might eject the
Consecrated Host, the custom obtained from the beginning of administering the
Eucharist to them under the species of wine only.
Infants, however,
not only at the time of Baptism, but also frequently thereafter were admitted
to the sacred repast. In some churches it was the custom to give the Eucharist
to the children immediately after the clergy; in others, the small fragments
which remained after the Communion of the adults were given to the children.
This practice
later died out in the Latin Church, and children were not permitted to approach
the Holy Table until they had come to the use of reason and had some knowledge
of this august Sacrament. This new practice, already accepted by certain local
councils, was solemnly confirmed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran, in 1215,
which promulgated its celebrated Canon XXI, whereby sacramental Confession and
Holy Communion were made obligatory on the faithful after they had attained the
use of reason, in these words: “All the faithful of both sexes shall, after
reaching the years of discretion, make private confession of all their sins to
their own priest at least once a year, and shall, according to their capacity,
perform the enjoined penance; they shall also devoutly receive the Sacrament of
Holy Eucharist at least at Easter time unless on the advice of their own
priest, for some reasonable cause, it be deemed well to abstain for a while.”
The Council of
Trent, in no way condemning the ancient practice of administering the Eucharist
to children before they had attained the use of reason, confirmed the Decree of
the Lateran Council and declared anathema those who held otherwise: “If anyone
denies that each and all Christians of both sexes are bound, when they have
attained the years of discretion, to receive Communion every year at least at
Easter, in accordance with the precept of Holy Mother Church, let him be
anathema.”
In accord with
this Decree of the Lateran Council, still in effect, the faithful are obliged,
as soon as they arrive at the years of discretion, to receive the Sacraments of
Penance and Holy Eucharist at least once a year.
However, in the
precise determination of “the age of reason or discretion” not a few errors and
deplorable abuses have crept in during the course of time. There were some who
maintained that one age of discretion must be assigned to reception of the
Sacrament of Penance and another to the Holy Eucharist. They held that for
Confession the age of discretion is reached when one can distinguish right from
wrong, hence can commit sin; for Holy Eucharist, however, a greater age is
required in which a full knowledge of matters of faith and a better preparation
of the soul can be had. As a consequence, owing to various local customs and
opinions, the age determined for the reception of First Communion was placed at
ten years or twelve, and in places fourteen years or even more were required;
and until that age children and youth were prohibited from Eucharistic
Communion.
This practice of
preventing the faithful from receiving on the plea of safeguarding the august
Sacrament has been the cause of many evils. It happened that children in their
innocence were forced away from the embrace of Christ and deprived of the food
of their interior life; and from this it also happened that in their youth,
destitute of this strong help, surrounded by so many temptations, they lost
their innocence and fell into vicious habits even before tasting of the Sacred
Mysteries. And even if a thorough instruction and a careful Sacramental
Confession should precede Holy Communion, which does not everywhere occur,
still the loss of first innocence is always to be deplored and might have been
avoided by reception of the Eucharist in more tender years.
No less worthy of
condemnation is that practice which prevails in many places prohibiting from
Sacramental Confession children who have not yet made their First Holy
Communion, or of not giving them absolution. Thus it happens that they, perhaps
having fallen into serious sin, remain in that very dangerous state for a long
time.
But worse still
is the practice in certain places which prohibits children who have not yet
made their First Communion from being fortified by the Holy Viaticum, even when
they are in imminent danger of death; and thus, when they die they are buried
with the rites due to infants and are deprived of the prayers of the Church.
Such is the
injury caused by those who insist on extraordinary preparations for First
Communion, beyond what is reasonable; and they doubtless do not realize that
such precautions proceed from the errors of the Jansenists who contended that
the Most Holy Eucharist is a reward rather than a remedy for human frailty. The
Council of Trent, indeed, teaches otherwise when it calls the Eucharist, “An
antidote whereby we may be freed from daily faults and be preserved from mortal
sins.” This doctrine was not long ago strongly emphasized by a Decree of the
Sacred Congregation of the Council given on December 20, 1905. It declared that
daily approach to Communion is open to all, old and young, and two conditions
only are required: the state of grace and a right intention.
Moreover, the
fact that in ancient times the remaining particles of the Sacred Species were
even given to nursing infants seems to indicate that no extraordinary
preparation should now be demanded of children who are in the happy state of
innocence and purity of soul, and who, amidst so many dangers and seductions of
the present time have a special need of this heavenly food.
The abuses which
we are condemning are due to the fact that they who distinguished one age of
discretion for Penance and another for the Eucharist did so in error. The
Lateran Council required one and the same age for reception of either Sacrament
when it imposed the one obligation of Confession and Communion.
Therefore, the
age of discretion for Confession is the time when one can distinguish between
right and wrong, that is, when one arrives at a certain use of reason, and so
similarly, for Holy Communion is required the age when one can distinguish
between the Bread of the Holy Eucharist and ordinary bread-again the age at
which a child attains the use of reason.
The principal
interpreters of the Lateran Council and contemporaries of that period had the
same teaching concerning this Decree. The history of the Church reveals that a
number of synods and episcopal decrees beginning with the twelfth century,
shortly after the Lateran Council, admitted children of seven years of age to
First Communion. There is moreover the word of St. Thomas Aquinas, who is an authority
of the highest order, which reads: “When children begin to have some use of
reason, so that they can conceive a devotion toward this Sacrament (the
Eucharist), then this Sacrament can be given to them.”6 Ledesma thus explains
these words: “I say, in accord with common opinion, that the Eucharist is to be
given to all who have the use of reason, and just as soon as they attain the
use of reason, even though at the time the child may have only a confused
notion of what he is doing.” Vasquez comments on the same words of St. Thomas
as follows: “When a child has once arrived at the use of reason he is
immediately bound by the divine law from which not even the Church can dispense
him.”
The same is the
teachings of St. Antoninus, who wrote: “But when a child is capable of doing
wrong, that is of committing a mortal sin, then he is bound by the precept of
Confession and consequently of Communion.” The Council of Trent also forces us
to the same conclusion when it declares: “Children who have not attained the
use of reason are not by any necessity bound to Sacramental Communion of the
Eucharist.” It assigns as the only reason the fact that they cannot commit sin:
“they cannot at that age lose the grace of the sons of God already acquired.”
From this it is
the mind of the Council that children are held to Communion by necessity and by
precept when they are capable of losing grace by sin. The words of the Roman
Synod, held under Benedict XIII, are in agreement with this in teaching that
the obligation to receive the Eucharist begins, “after boys and girls attain
the age of discretion, that is, at the age in which they can distinguish this
Sacramental food, which is none other than the true Body of Jesus Christ, from
common and ordinary bread; and that they know how to receive it with proper
religious spirit.”
The Roman
Catechism adds this: “At what age children are to receive the Holy Mysteries no
one can better judge than their father and the priest who is their confessor.
For it is their duty to ascertain by questioning the children whether they have
any understanding of this admirable Sacrament and if they have any desire for
it.”
From all this it
is clear that the age of discretion for receiving Holy Communion is that at
which the child knows the difference between the Eucharistic Bread and
ordinary, material bread, and can therefore approach the altar with proper
devotion. Perfect knowledge of the things of faith, therefore, is not required,
for an elementary knowledge suffices-some knowledge (aliqua cognitio);
similarly full use of reason is not required, for a certain beginning of the
use of reason, that is, some use of reason (aliqualis usus rationis) suffices.
To
postpone Communion, therefore, until later and to insist on a more mature age
for its reception must be absolutely discouraged, and indeed such practice was
condemned more than once by the Holy See. Thus Pope Pius IX, of happy memory,
in a Letter of Cardinal Antonelli to the Bishops of France, March 12, 1866,
severely condemned the growing custom existing in some dioceses of postponing
the First Communion of children until more mature years, and at the same time
sharply disapproved of the age limit which had been assigned. Again, the Sacred
Congregation of the Council, on March 15, 1851, corrected a prescription of the
Provincial Council of Rouen, which prohibited children under twelve years of
age from receiving First Communion. Similarly, this Sacred Congregation of the
Discipline of the Sacraments, on March 25, 1910, in a question proposed to it
from Strasburg whether children of twelve or fourteen years could be admitted
to Holy Communion, answered: “Boys and girls are to be admitted to the Holy
Table when they arrive at the years of discretion or the use of reason.”
After careful
deliberation on all these points, this Sacred Congregation of the Discipline of
the Sacraments, in a general meeting held on July 15, 1910, in order to remove
the above-mentioned abuses and to bring about that children even from their
tender years may be united to Jesus Christ, may live His life, and obtain
protection from all danger of corruption, has deemed it needful to prescribe
the following rules which are to be observed everywhere for the First Communion
of children.
1. The age of
discretion, both for Confession and for Holy Communion, is the time when a
child begins to reason, that is about the seventh year, more or less. From that
time on begins the obligation of fulfilling the precept of both Confession and
Communion.
2. A full and
perfect knowledge of Christian doctrine is not necessary either for First
Confession or for First Communion. Afterwards, however, the child will be
obliged to learn gradually the entire Catechism according to his ability.
3. The knowledge
of religion which is required in a child in order to be properly prepared to
receive First Communion is such that he will understand according to his
capacity those Mysteries of faith which are necessary as a means of salvation
(necessitate medii) and that he can distinguish between the Bread of the
Eucharist and ordinary, material bread, and thus he may receive Holy Communion
with a devotion becoming his years.
4. The obligation
of the precept of Confession and Communion which binds the child particularly
affects those who have him in charge, namely, parents, confessor, teachers and
the pastor. It belongs to the father, or the person taking his place, and to
the confessor, according to the Roman Catechism, to admit a child to his First
Communion.
5. The pastor
should announce and hold a General Communion of the children once a year or
more often, and he should on these occasions admit not only the First
Communicants but also others who have already approached the Holy Table with
the above-mentioned consent of their parents or confessor. Some days of
instruction and preparation should be previously given to both classes of
children.
6. Those who have
charge of the children should zealously see to it that after their First
Communion these children frequently approach the Holy Table, even daily if possible,
as Jesus Christ and Mother Church desire, and let this be done with a devotion
becoming their age. They must also bear in mind that very grave duty which
obliged them to have the children attend the public Catechism classes; if this
is not done, then they must supply religious instruction in some other way.
7. The custom of
not admitting children to Confession or of not giving them absolution when they
have already attained the use of reason must be entirely abandoned. The
Ordinary shall see to it that this condition ceases absolutely, and he may, if
necessary, use legal measures accordingly.
8. The practice
of not administering the Viaticum and Extreme Unction to children who have
attained the use of reason, and of burying them with the rite used for infants
is a most intolerable abuse. The Ordinary should take very severe measures
against those who do not give up the practice.
His Holiness, Pope Pius X, in an audience granted
on the seventh day of this month, approved all the above decisions of this
Sacred Congregation, and ordered this Decree to be published and promulgated.
He furthermore commanded
that all the Ordinaries make this Decree known not only to the pastors and the
clergy, but also to the people, and he wishes that it be read in the vernacular
every year at the Easter time. The Ordinaries shall give an account of the
observance of this Decree together with other diocesan matters every five
years.
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