Babies can receive the Eucharist in the Orthodox Church, why do Catholic children have to wait?

"Listen to what happened in my presence, before my very eyes. There was a baby girl, whose parents had fled (i.e., during the persecutions) and had, in their fear, rather improvidently left it in the charge of its nurse. The nurse took the helpless child to the magistrates. There, before the idol where the crowds were flocking, as it was too young to eat the flesh, they gave it some bread dipped in what was left of the wine offered by those who had already doomed themselves. Later, the mother recovered her child. But the girl could not reveal or tell the wicked thing that had been done, any more than she had been able to understand or ward it off before. Thus, when the mother brought her in with her while we were offering the Sacrifice, it was through ignorance that this mischance occurred.  But the infant, in the midst of the faithful, resenting the prayer and the offering we were making, began to cry convulsively, struggling and tossing in a veritable brain-storm, and for all its tender age and simplicity of soul, was confessing, as if under torture, in every way it could, its consciousness of the misdeed.  Moreover, when the Sacred Rites were completed and the deacon began ministering to those present, when its turn came to receive, it turned its little head away as if sensing the Divine Presence, it closed its mouth, held its lips tight, and refused to drink from the chalice. The deacon persisted and, in spite of its opposition, poured in some of the Consecrated Chalice. There followed choking and vomiting. The Eucharist could not remain in a body or mouth that was defiled; the Drink which had been sanctified by Our Lord's Blood returned from the polluted stomach. So great is the power of the Lord, and so great His majesty!" ---St. Cyrian, The Lapsed" Ch. 25, circa 249-258 A.D.

Now, of special note in this account by St. Cyprian is the fact that the pagans gave this Christian infant some bread (from their pagan sacrifice) soaked in wine (from their pagan sacrifice). This is, needless to say, similar in form to the current Byzantine practice. Yet, the Carthaginian Christians at this time did not use a similar form, but gave only the Eucharistic Wine to the infant. So, as can be seen in this account, as early as the 250’s, the pastoral practice in the North African church of Carthage was to administer the Eucharist to infants from the Chalice only. The Eucharistic Bread was not given to them.

But, this was still not a universal practice in the West, nor even in North Africa itself!   For, along with this account from St. Cyprian, we have statements from his historical contemporaries showing that other areas of North Africa (Cyprian’s own providence, over which he himself was Metropolitan) were still delaying Baptism until adulthood!  …and so were obviously not giving the Eucharist to unBaptized infants!    For example, Cyprian’s contemporary Tertullian writes …

"And so, according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of Baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of children."  (Tertullian, On Baptism A.D. 212). 

There was respectful disagreement among bishops

And this respectful disagreement among local bishops in North Africa over the appropriateness of infant Baptism continued under Cyprian, who likewise allowed each African bishop to maintain his own position on a variety of other pastoral concerns, such as the supposed need to re-Baptize heretics who sought communion with the Catholic Church.  In Cyprian’s own words, “None of us [meaning: ‘none of we Africans’] makes himself a bishop of bishops.”   And so, even though he (as Bishop of Carthage) was the Metropolitan Archbishop over all Africa, Numidia, and Mauriatania (a vast amount of territory in the Roman Empire), Cyprian did not impose his own (Carthaginian) pastoral practices on the other African bishops. This would obviously have included the local decisions to Baptize infants and to administer the Eucharist to them.  It would also include whether infants were to be given the Eucharist under both Species (Bread and Wine), or just the Wine. 

Indeed, elsewhere in the West (and even in Italy), local pastoral practices continued to differ from church to church, and from region to region. This was especially the case given that the ancient and medieval Western Church did not subscribe to a single, Roman Rite (as is predominately the case today), but was rather divided into those churches which subscribed to the Roman Rite and those churches which subscribed to the various forms of the Gallican Rite (i.e.. its sub-rites:  e.g. the Ambrosian Rite of Northern Italy; the Isidorian and Mozabrian Rites of Spain; the Celtic Rite in Ireland and Britain, etc.). All of these Liturgical spheres of Western Christendom expressed themselves differently, and treated the reception of the Eucharist differently.  Some mirrored the developing Byzantine Rite and gave the Eucharist to infants at the time of their Baptism and thereafter. Others delayed the Eucharist, either to another time, or until the child was older. And, again, this diversity came into being very early on (mirroring the diversity that existed regarding the appropriate age for Baptism), and it could very well manifest itself among different churches within the same districts, if not within the same cities or towns!    Indeed, within a given parish, there might even be a situation in which one priest subscribed to one pastoral custom (giving the Eucharist to infants) while another priest favored a different custom (and so excluded children until they were older).  And this was all part of the natural, historical development of an evolving Western Christian society. As in the East, solutions came into being over time and in accord with approved or rejected practice. 

Orthodox priest, Fr. Taft is mistaken in his assmptions

So, Fr. Taft is simply incorrect (or, at best, overly simplistic) when he says “The practice [of communing infants] began to be called into question in the 12th Century.”   It was most certainly an issue long before that. However, Fr. Taft is correct when he says that the current Roman practice did not originally (or entirely) stem from a concern that the child attain the “age of reason.”   Such a “psychological” concern would not be at the forefront of medieval thought. Rather, in both the medieval and the ancient mind, the concern was not one of proper “psychological development” for the child, but rather of mature experience and cultural awareness. As with the ancients and their concern about the appropriateness of infant Baptism, the issue was not whether or not the child was “psychologically ready” to be Baptized, or whether or not Baptism would be able to “take effect” for an infant, but rather the bishops’ desire to maximize the recipient’s cultural appreciation of Baptism by delaying it until adulthood. In the same way (and most likely, in many places, in direct historical relation to the desire to delay Baptism), the delay in administering the Eucharist was designed to maximize the recipient’s cultural appreciation of the Real Presence. For, just as it was feared that someone who was Baptized as an infant might “take their Baptism for granted” and (when they became an adult in a totally Christian secular society) not appreciate the serious Covenantal commitment that they entered into when they were Baptized (as an infant), so it was feared that someone who received the Eucharist from earliest childhood may likewise “take the Real Presence for granted” and (when they became an adult in a totally Christian secular society) not appreciate or manifest the proper awe and reverence with which the Eucharist should be treated. So, in neither case, it was not a matter of some concern for proper psychological development on the part of the recipient of Baptism or the Eucharist, but rather a concern that these holy Mysteries might not become too “familiar” or “matter of fact” for a person raised in a Christian family and belonging to a totally Christian secular society. In this, it was rather like the present Byzantine practice of withdrawing oneself from the Eucharist for a time, so that you might develop a proper ‘spiritual hunger’ for the Eucharistic Lord, and so a deeper and truer appreciation for the Holy Mystery. This was the understanding.

It's tied to infant baptism

And, as I touched on above, the delay of giving the Eucharist to infants or children may likely have originally developed (in various places) as a kind of “compromise” with those bishops who were originally opposed to the normality of infant Baptism. In other words, once infant Baptism became universally accepted as the norm, various places began to delay the Eucharist (to separate the giving of First Communion from the time of Baptism) so as to protect the Eucharist from being under-appreciated or “taken for granted.”    Sadly, I cannot provide direct historical testimony to account for this development. It would of course be very helpful to have one or two Church fathers directly commenting on this development. Yet, given the historical dynamics, the notion that such a development must have taken place is quite commonsensical (at least to my own mind).    

In addition to this, there is also the development of profound, medieval Western piety in regard to the Eucharist, which led many Christians (often correctly and appropriately) to believe that they were not worthy to receive the Eucharist. And this created a dynamic in Western Christendom in which reception of the Eucharist (or even making one’s First Holy Communion) became a rare and neglected thing. And while the reception of the Eucharist should of course not be rare or neglected for Christians, one needs to appreciate how such an attitude developed (with considerable validity) in the Western Church. For, unlike in the East, where Roman (Byzantine) civilization and urban life continued without much interruption, Western Europe experienced a literal collapse of civilization with the fall of the Western Empire. And, for the next 1,000 years or so, Western civilization became highly militarized, engaging in near-constant wars, raids, and other acts of (arguably) very “non-Christian” behavior. The “Christian” aristocracy of this society was a warrior elite, and it routinely had copious amounts of blood on its hands.  And, because of this, the aristocrats of Western Europe who were paradoxically both viciously warlike and sincerely pious at the same time, typically felt that they were unworthy to receive the Eucharist …at least until later in their lives (when there military careers were over, and when they could spend their old age repenting for their sinful lives). And this was, by no means, a new phenomenon. Constantine the Great exhibited a similar sensibly, even delaying his own Baptism until his deathbed!    And so, the military aristocracy of medieval Europe (who were, nevertheless, Baptized) followed Constantine’s implicit example and considered themselves to be unworthy of fully participating in the Sacramental life of the Church. And the common people simply followed their example; the result being that reception of the Eucharist at the Western Liturgies became infrequent for the vast majority of laity. And this situation (which began with some validity, based on sincere piety) was not corrected until the time of Pope St. Pius X, who initiated an earlier age for First Holy Communion, and encouraged the more frequent reception of the Eucharist for the laity. And this is of course the present practice of the Roman Catholic Church. Some (such as myself) would of course argue that this present practice needs to be amended, given that it has gone too far, allowing for wide-spread abuse of the Sacrament, with many people receiving the Eucharist unworthily at ever Mass. Pope St. Pius (in the 19th Century) did not of course foresee such a thing. 

The decision of the Council of Trent

As for the decision of Trent that it is not essential that infants receive Communion, this was and is understood in the sense of the corporate (communal) dynamic of the Church as the Body of Christ. In other words, what Trent is saying is that, even though the infant himself does not physically receive the Eucharist, the grace of the Eucharist is imparted to the Baptized infant via the infant’s one-Flesh unity with the entire Church, into which the infant is Baptized and with which the infant is one-Flesh, one-Body. This is why (even in the Byzantine Rite) those who abstain from the Eucharist for a time (for the sake of “oikonomia”) STILL REMAIN part of the one Body of the Church, and so still part of the Eucharistic Mystery of the Church (and in the Liturgy), even though they have no physically partaken of the Sacrament. A Western parallel would be our practice and theological understanding that it is not necessary for each member of the congregation to partake of the Precious Blood of Christ at the Liturgy, but that the priest on the altar receives the Chalice (the Chalice of the New Covenant”) on behalf of the congregation …and because he (acting “in the Person of Christ”) acts as the Sacramental Head to the Sacramental Body of the assembled Church. So, the merits and graces associated with the Eucharist likewise reach the infant who, as yet, is not considered properly disposed to receive the Eucharist physically. Since, by virtue of his Baptism, he is part of the Eucharistic Body (the Church), the infant is not deprived or excluded. This is our Roman theological understanding. 

There is a claim Romans apparently “administer the Sacraments of initiation out of order.”   By this, we assume you mean the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation (Chrismation).  This would be misunderstanding our Liturgical Rite of Baptism.  We do not administer them out of order. The oil that is placed on a baby’s head at the time of Baptism is not the Sacrament of Confirmation / Chrismation, but rather a kind of “foretaste” of it. In our Rite of Baptism, we are proclaiming that the new Christian is taking on the character of Jesus Christ, and so we anoint the new Christian as “a Priest, a Prophet, and a King.”   This is something different from the Anointing that is given in Confirmation / Chrismation. And to appreciate it properly, one must study how our two rites developed. 

God bless you

Mark Bonocore
Edited by Hugh