The rule is that anyone who has the ability to understand what is going on needs to receive age-appropriate catechesis before receiving any Sacrament. Perhaps at your mother’s parish, they have determined that five year olds have this ability. (I don’t see why they would not, in most cases.) The process would include the rites of RCIA, since this is the norm of the Church for baptism.
It is not an age, but a Stage of development. Called the “Catechetical Age”. The stage at which a particular child is capable of being Catechized. It is spoken of as being “about” seven. For a particular child it could be 6 or it could 7 or 8 or even 9.
canon law actually says anytime after the age of discretion, generally recognized as age 7, the child is considered an adult for the purposes of initiation sacraments. It is possible for a 5 year old to be at the level, and pastoral exceptions can be made, but generally a 5 year old is considered an infant for the purposes of baptism and other initiation sacraments
It needs to be age appropriate, but I have even seen two year olds being asked whether they wanted to be baptized. They had an understanding of what the question meant, and were able to respond appropriately. The parents were the ones who were explaining it to their children, of course.
The concepts of “childhood” and “teenager” are very recent - in the Middle Ages, people went to work as soon as they could form complete sentences, and were considered to be adults.
Nobody is expecting that. The RCIA recognizes the need to provide age-appropriate Catechesis.
That’s a bizarre story - I doubt that I understand it very well, either.
Of course not, but he does understand things like “Mommy gets mad when I run in the house,” and “Jesus loves me, anyway, even though He’s sad that I ran in the house and made my Mommy get mad.”
“Adult” is just the distinction between, duck the kid under without telling him ahead of time what’s going to happen (infant), or ask him whether he would like to be baptized, and explain it to him in terms that he can understand (adult). The Church doesn’t have any concept of “child,” “teenager” or “youth” in its official policies regarding the Sacraments. (The definition of “youth” is especially fuzzy - I recently heard of a Catholic “youth group” that is going to be open to four year olds.)
as stated “adult” in this context means catechetical age, or age of discretion, generally recognized as about age 7. this means in the context of RCIA for the purposes of the initiation sacraments. not in any other context, matrimony for instance. It is up to OP to provide a source for the “5 yrs old” she said it, I didn’t.
I wouldn’t use such strong wording as to say that the Church doesn’t have any concept of child, teenager, or youth. After all, there is a Rite of Christian Initiation for Children (which, IIRC, is meant to cover children from the age of reason to about 14). There are also canonical distinctions between adults (over 7) who are still minors (under 18) and those who have reached majority, though this distinction doesn’t affect access to the sacraments. Other distinctions within adulthood do, though, including mitigated communion fast for the elderly, minimum ages of 25 or 35 for orders…