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Quam singulari
A decree of the Sacred Congregation
of the Sacraments, 8 August, 1910, on the age at which children
are to be admitted to first Communion, officially promulgated 15
August, 1910 (Acta Apost. Sedis, 15 August, 1910). The historical
facts narrated in the "Quam singulari" prove that:
it is not a decree inaugurating
a new discipline, but one restoring the ancient and universal law
of the Church, wherever it has not been observed (Pius X to Card.
Abp. of Cologne, 31 December, 1910);
the custom of giving Holy
Communion to infants immediately after baptism, and frequently
before the beginning of their rational life, has been modified
but never condemned; it is even approved to-day among the Greeks
and Orientals;
the decree of the Fourth Lateran
Council (1215, can. xxi) has never been revoked or modified, and
in virtue of it all are obliged, as soon as they arrive at the
years of discretion, to receive both the Sacraments of Penance
and Holy Communion at Easter time;
the "testimony of the
greatest authority, St. Thomas Aquinas", interpreting the
Council, states that the Lateran decree obliges "children
when they begin to have some use of reason" (also Ledesma,
Vasquez, St. Antoninus);
the Council of Trent confirmed
the Lateran decree pronouncing anathema against all who deny
"that the faithful of both sexes who have attained the use
of reason are obliged to receive Holy Communion every year, at
least at Easter time" (Sess. XIII, de Euch., c. viii, can.
ix).
Errors condemned by the "Quam
singulari"
To receive Holy Communion a
more, complete knowledge of the articles of Faith is required.
This erroneous opinion, demanding with Jansenism (1)
extraordinary preparation, thereby deferring Communion "for
the riper age" of twelve, fourteen, or even older
("absolutely forbidden"), makes (2) "the Holy
Eucharist a reward and not a remedy for human frailty",
which is contrary to the teaching of the Council of Trent that
Holy Communion is "an antidote by which we are freed from
our daily faults and preserved from mortal sins". The error
assumes (3) what may be false — that riper years and more
complete instruction give better dispositions than the innocence
and candour of more tender years. As first Communion is not
essentially different from any other Communion the extraordinary
preparation heretofore demanded is (4) contrary to the "Sacra
Tridentina", which for daily communicants, including
children, requires only the state of grace and a good intention.
Abuses following from errors
causing, by the custom of some
places, children to live in the state of sin by not allowing them
to go to confession until the age determined for first Communion,
or of denying them absolution when they confessed ("absolutely
condemned" and "to be done away with by ordinaries as
the law permits");
denying the Viaticum to dying
children who had not received their first Communion, and burying
these as infants, thereby depriving them of the suffrages of the
Church, to which they were entitled ("utterly detestable",
"ordinaries to proceed severely against these").
Conditions for first Confession
and first Communion
The age of discretion, which
applies equally to both sacraments. This may be judged (1) by the
first indication of the child using its reasoning powers; (2) by
the child knowing what is right from wrong. No determined age is
placed as a condition; the age of seven is mentioned because the
majority of children arrive at the years of discretion, that is,
begin to reason, about this period, some sooner, some later.
A knowledge such as a child just
beginning to reason can have about one God, Who rewards the good
and punishes the wicked, and about the mysteries of the Trinity
and the Incarnation. It is not necessary that the child should
commit to memory accurate theological definitions, which may
convey no idea to the little mind just beginning to unfold.
A child must be able to
distinguish the Eucharistic from the common bread; that is, to
know that what looks like bread is not bread, but contains the
real, living Body and Blood of Christ.
Obligation of admitting children
to first Communion When children begin to reason, the
obligation of receiving Holy Communion is Divine as well as
ecclesiastical. The subject-matter of the decree:
is therefore a grave one
obliging under serious sin, (1) children themselves if they know
of and maliciously neglect their obligation; (2) those
responsible for the children: father, mother, instructors,
rectors of colleges, principals of schools, superiors of
communities and children's asylums, all who have parental
responsibility, confessors, and pastors.
Those responsible for children
should regard as "their most important duty" that the
incomplete instruction given before first Communion be continued
afterwards by sending the children to the public catechetical
instructions, or by supplying their religious instruction in some
other way. The formal admission of the child to first Communion
rests with the father, or the one taking his place, and with the
confessor. The decree supposes these to act together, and when
they agree on the admission no one may interfere. Where the
parents are negligent or indifferent or opposed to their
children's first Communion, the confessor can assume the entire
responsibility. Should the confessors oppose the admission of
children whose parents know they have begun to reason, the
prudent course in practice is to present the children to another
confessor, for every confessor has a right to admit a child to
private first Communion.
General Communion A public
ceremony devolving not on the confessor but on the parish priest,
who is required to have yearly one or several of these general
Communions, which may be simple or solemn. The simple:
will admit the (1) little
children making their first Communion, also (2) those who have
previously approached the Holy Table. The decree requires some
days of instruction and preparation for both classes of children
when they receive in a body. This can be given as conditions and
circumstances permit, attention being paid to the spirit and
substance of this provision.
Every pastor can arrange a
solemn ceremony in which those would participate who had
completed a course in Christian Doctrine. Every year during the
time the faithful can satisfy their Easter duty, the "Quam
singulari" must be read to the people in the vernacular.
Every five years in their ad limina, ordinaries will be
obliged to report the observance of the decree to the Holy See.
GENNARI in Il
Mon. Ecc. (Aug., Sept., 1910); VERMEERSCH,
De Prima Puerorum Communione;
BESSON in Nouvelle Revue Th ologique
(Nov., Dec., 1910); FERRERES in Raz n y Fe
(Dec., 1910); CANB in The Sentinel
(March, 1911-); Ecclesiastical Review
(Oct., 1910); ZULUETA, Early First
Communion; The Child Prepared for First Communion
(New York, 1911); LUCAS, The Decree "Quam
singulari" and the Age for First Communion;
MALONEY in The Catholic World
(Feb., 1911); NERI, La Prima Cumunione dei
fancuilli; LINTELO, Il
Decreto sull' Eta della Prima Comunione;
MACCONO, La Prima Comunione; P dagogische
Bedeutung des Dekrets ber Erst-Kommunion
(Hildesheim, 1911); Die Kommunion der
Kinder (Mainz, 1911); See also current
Catholic, especially foreign, reviews, Sept, to Dec., 1910; also
many pastoral letters of bishops of United States and Europe.
JOHN T. MCNICHOLAS
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