Our Lady of the Rosary Library
Quam Singulari - First Holy Communion
April, the month dedicated to the Holy Eucharist
J.M.J.
QUAM SINGULARI
Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments
on First Communion
August 8, 1910
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.
From "Papal Encyclicals Online"
(http://www.papalencyclicals.net/all.htm).
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Prayers and articles related to the Blessed Sacrament:
"Prayers to the Blessed Sacrament" prayer card
(http://olrl.org/pray/ihs.shtml);
"Daily Offering and Spiritual Communion" prayer card
(http://olrl.org/pray/dailyoffering.shtml);
"Eucharistic Miracles" (http://olrl.org/sacramen/ihsmrcls.shtml);
"The Exorcism of Nicola Aubrey"
(http://olrl.org/stories/exorcism.shtml)
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Sincerely in Christ,
Our Lady of the Rosary Library
"Pray and work for souls"
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