Obtaining permission for infant/child communion

[Vico]

My understanding is that infant communion is regarded as unnecessary to salvation in the Catholic faith, so most people do not do it. However, I know there are exceptions, such as in the case of Little Nellie of Holy God. Is it easy to obtain permission for such an exception? For instance, if someone would like their child to receive communion before the age of seven, is there a procedure to follow to obtain permission? If yes, how long does it take and what are the chances of receiving permission? Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut!

If you are baptised Orthodox now, and your are received into full communion in a Catholic Church (any of the 23 Church sui iuris that exist) then you become Catholic ascribed to the equivalent Catholic Church to the Orthodox Church you were baptised in (not the one where you were received). Your baptised children under age 14, become ascribed to the Church of the father (or of the Catholic mother if in agreement, or of the Catholic parent in a mixed marriage) at the same time, and then follow the sacramental praxis that is the norm for that Church, which if eastern, is likely to be infant Holy Eucharist. If it is the norm for the ascribed Church sui iuris then no permissions are necessary. But if receiving in a Latin Church, arrangments may need to be made to not disrupt the normal reception of Holy Eucharist (e.g., they may need a spoon or tube).

Besides the Latin Church, these are the Catholic Churches with the year that that were received into full communion.

1930 Syro-Malankar
1918 Macedonian
1905 Russian
1861 Bulgarian
1846 Ethiopian
1829 Greek
1781 Syrian
1742 Armenian
1741 Coptic
1724 Melkite
1697 Romanian
1599 Syro-Malabar
1552 Chaldean
1628 Albanian
1646 Belarusan, Ukrainian
1611 Krizevci (Croatia)
1595 Ruthenian, Slovakian, Hungarian
Always united with Rome:
Maronite (reaffirmed 1182)
Italo-Albanian (Italo-Greek)

 

[countertenor]

Thank you! Just to make sure I understood correctly: even if I attend a Roman parish, my children may receive communion at a young age? Is there anything special I need to do for this (eg, request the bishop’s permission, etc)?

Technically speaking yes they can receive. Mine currently do. Some priests in other diocese have had issues with this, but within the diocese I live, none ever have. We just presented ourselves to the priest when we joined the parish (or called ahead of time when we were visiting for a weekend, ect.) and let the priest know the situation. I’ve only ever contacted the bishop when a priest wasn’t willing on his own without asking his bishop, so I found it easier to contact the bishop directly for the priest. I’ve never had a bishop say no, but I have had one lightly cajole us not to, unless it was going to be traumatic for our kids. In which case the answer ends up a yes.

My son 3 1/2, is so affected by communion, that if for some reason, the Latin priest won’t let him receive, he has a total, emotional break down and won’t stop crying for a very long time.

As I said most of the Latin rite priests haven’t had a problem with it, and even if they have a personal issue with it, generally haven’t allowed that to prevent them from offering our kids communion, as long as we notified them in advance and didn’t just spring it on them. We’ve had a couple who actually gave my wife and I communion in the hand and then asked us to break the host and give part of it to our kids, I think that was mostly that they were afraid the kids wouldn’t actually take it from them.

But the priests and deacons generally always comment about how well they receive and how “they just opened their mouth and let me put it in.” My kids also have no problem drinking from the chalice in the Latin Churches either.

The thing to remember is that if you become Catholic, the Latin canon law doesn’t apply to Eastern Catholics, so even if you are in a Latin rite Church, your children still have the rite to receive communion, because the Eastern Canon law allows for it, and they are governed by the Eastern Canons, not the Latin rite canons.