www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Communion for Children in RC Churches

Jeff,

While this explains why the Sacrament of Confirmation is given but once a year it does not explain the gap of as many as 10 years between the reception of First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

Children could just as easily receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and then Holy Communion at the same Mass in the same year and still have those Sacraments presided over by the Bishop of the Diocese.

It is perplexing to contemplate why the Latin Church feels that a child is ready to receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ but is not ready to accept the responsibility inherent in the Latin understanding of Confirmation until many years later.

Hi Jeff,
I'm the one who started this thread. I really appreciate your contribution and your spirit. I have to say that I am a former RC who purposely made the shift to BC. I found the Church as I was drifting East and was delighted that I could fulfill what I see as a real spiritual call to live my Orthodoxy without breaking ties with the Bishop of Rome. I know that "Catholic Orthodox" rankles some but that's how I see it and what I have come to love in the years since I came over. I hear in your words the same sort of peaceful, respectful spiritual repose in your rite that I have found here. Thanks for sharing.
KH

KH, I am so glad to hear that you have found and accepted the spiritual calling that Our Lord has for you! I have a deep and abiding respect for each and every Rite that makes up the Holy Catholic Church, and I have an especially profound respect for the Byzantine tradition. I am a Catholic before I am of the Roman Rite, even though the Roman Rite is the way in which I am most comfortable sharing and understanding the truths of the Faith.

Carole, I understand your questioning, but it is my understanding (which may be incorrect) that you have a backwards analysis of the situation: "the age of reason" did not begin as a prerequisite for the Sacrament in the West, and thus the Sacrament was administered to children only at a particular age, but rather, children were coincidentally being confirmed at about the time period of their attaining the age of reason, and this was seen as pastorally advantageous.

It is my understanding that sometimes it really DID take near 10 years for a bishop to be able to get everywhere in a particular area - particularly the missionary areas in which no distinct diocese had yet been established. Imagine - a missionary goes to place x, converts the people, baptises children, and reports back to the Bishop. The trip takes a few months there and a few months back. the Bishop has people in his immediate area who need sheparding, and he has 10 or more missionaries like the one above who are coming to him. It could easily take 10 years to make it everywhere, and it is my understanding that much of europe (and England) was very much like this when it was first being converted.

So the tradition pre-dates the notion of "age of reason." Rather, it simply became a part of western tradition that Baptism, Holy Communion, and Confirmation were done at different times. Only after it was a tradition did we point out that it was beneficial for children at the age of reason to be confirmed, because it acts as a very important opportunity for the child to learn about his or her faith.

So it is my understanding that the "age of reason" discussion followed upon the existent tradition, and not vice versa.

Your Brother In Christ,

Jeff

Carole,

That modern RC children now recieve communion before confirmation is a relatively modern phenomena starting with Pope St Pius X.

Historically, from what I understand, the situation went this way in the West:

Charlesmagne wanted to baptize pagans but not allow them to recieve communion until they had proper catechesis. He asked how this could be done. He was told to withold confirmation -- because it is confirmation which gives the right to the rest of the sacraments.

When this happened, baptism and confirmation became separate events. Through history, confirmation was pushed back, and with it, first communion in the West.

Go forward several centuries. Pope St Pius X notes that children used to recieve communion. He establishes an earlier age of reception, but the reason why they no longer recieved it had been somewhat forgotten. So they started to recieve without confirmation. This abnormal practice, which has lasted for nearly a century, now is seen as the "norm" by many Roman Catholics. But within theological circles, it is being understood as a mistake, and work is being done to reverse this problem and bring the proper order of the sacraments back.

Until then, I consider it a dispensation that RC children recieve when they do.