Card Burke consoles boy who wants to receive Communion.

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Presumably his head and spirit are rightly disposed. Obviously his heart is. It’s cruel to without the Eucharist from him on grounds of heartless canonical bureaucracy .
 
From some reading on the internet - the older brother received his First Communion. Younger brother didn’t.

Younger brother has a little jealous crying jag. Gets some attention. All is well.

Not really a question of his desire to receive the Eucharist (would that it were so), more a question of his desire to get the same attention his brother did.
 
capablanca911 said:
… It’s cruel to without the Eucharist from him on grounds of heartless canonical bureaucracy .
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Hello,

I’d agree with that but don’t think it applies here–the boy’s family looks happy, not disgruntled about heartless canonical bureaucracy. So, who is it who has acted in the way you describe, and for that reason, and how do you know? Surely you aren’t putting this at the feet of Cardinal Burke (who is a noted canon lawyer), are you?

Dan
 
It wouldn’t make sense to blame bureaucracy and exclude canon lawyers would it?
 
dans0622 said:
Ok. Not a very impressive response but thanks for your time.

Dan
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What was there to respond to? Your assertion that the family was pleased?

True or false: Person X (properly disposed) should be denied sacraments because it pleases the family.

True or false: Person X (properly disposed) should be allowed sacraments because it pleases the family.

My opinion is that the desires of the family are *immaterial *to a properly disposed person desiring Communion.

Now assuming for a moment (feel free to argue against this assertion) that any properly disposed person who desires sacraments should get them, and in this case he was (probably) properly disposed, it is my opinion that he should have gotten them.

The only reason he didn’t get them is because of bureaucratic neurosis about a numerical value of his date of birth, an obsession not known to the Church Universal in any century, and known to the Western Rite only after the 12th.

That, my friend, is a travesty.
 
The boy in question was crying because he was jealous of his brother, not because he desired the Eucharist.
 
Not really. On Facebook - now deleted - it said that the older brother had received communion and the younger one wanted to also.

I’ve had a child want to receive communion not because they really understood, but just because older siblings were doing so.
 
capablanca911 said:
Presumably his head and spirit are rightly disposed. Obviously his heart is. It’s cruel to without the Eucharist from him on grounds of heartless canonical bureaucracy .
Click to expand...
On the other hand, the Church has felt it wise to withhold the sacrament from those who are too young to understand its implications. Like those 3 and 4 and 5 year olds who want to do “what big brother did”.

And having raised children, and having observed a multitude of others, I would not look at a picture like that and presume from only his reactions that the child was in any way rightly disposed. In head, heart, or spirit.
 
His eyes shed tears in reflection of his soul for its spiritual starvation :(. Ample reason for the Latin Church to revert to a more theologically-correct history.

Anyway, more seriously, the motivation of a child wanting to receive because “big brother doing so” is not a bad motivation. Adults can go to church for this reason and that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad, it is just a more basic motivation that God is using to move them closer to Him. The fact that a child is denied the ultimate mercy of God simply because he doesn’t “understand” it because it hasn’t reached the magical age of 7 is bogus - I still can’t say I understand what I receive and I’m triple the age of reason and studying to be a priest.
 
MorEphrem said:
His eyes shed tears in reflection of his soul for its spiritual starvation :(. Ample reason for the Latin Church to revert to a more theologically-correct history.
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His eyes shed tears because of raw jealousy.
 
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