Section — Marc, Institutiones Morales
§ 1. On Children and Others Lacking the Use of Reason
- PRINCIPLES. I. Those who have only the habit of reason are not held to positive laws. The reason is clear from the aforesaid, because they cannot be directed in a human way. Therefore it is lawful for them to eat meat on a forbidden day, etc.; to omit Mass on feast days, etc.
- II. Children using reason are subject to positive laws as regards Confession and Paschal Communion.
This is clear from the celebrated decree Quam singulari, given on August 8, 1910 (A. A. S., II, p. 582), by which all things are reduced to the norm of the Lateran Council.
Note. In order that children be subject to these laws, it is not required that they have in fact reached the age of seven; it suffices that they use reason; or better, to use the words of St. Thomas (3, q. 80, a. 9 ad 3), it suffices that they begin to have some use of reason ... so that they can conceive devotion to this Sacrament. As regards the other things required in children, see what will be said in the treatise on Communion.
III. Children using reason, after the seventh year, are subject to the other laws of the Church, and after puberty, to ecclesiastical penalties.
The first part is clear; for as regards these children all things are verified which are indicated in the general principle enunciated above. Whence rightly the Sacred Penitentiary, March 15, 1837: "Children, after the seventh year, are held to observe the quality of foods prescribed by the Church." Cf. De Angelis, Prael. Jur. can., l. 3, tit. 46, n. 5.
The second part rests on the reason that every censure presupposes contumacy and deceit on the part of the one to be punished, which crimes are commonly judged to be present only in those who have reached puberty.
Note, however (cf. n. 1261), that even those who have not reached puberty incur censures against violators of the enclosure of nuns and strikers of clerics, as is expressly noted in words in the Law. St. Alph., VII, n. 14; ed. G., p. 277; Vermeersch, de Relig., I, n. 310.
We said: children using reason, after the seventh year, are obliged. This obligation must also be maintained if, concerning some child who is seven years old, it is doubted whether he has attained the use of reason; for the use of reason is presumed to be present. St. Alph., III, n. 270; ed. G., I, p. 550; Lehmkuhl, I, n. 230.
But what if children become possessed of reason before the seventh year? There is a twofold opinion. The first, which seems more probable to St. Alphonsus (III, n. 1012; ed. G., II, p. 391, and the place indicated above), affirms. The reason: the laws of the Church oblige without distinction all who are endowed with reason.
The second opinion, also probable, denies. The reason: law is given for cases commonly occurring (cf. St. Thom., 2.2, q. 147, a. 4). We can safely follow the latter opinion, to which the response of the Sacred Penitentiary communicated above lends support. Nevertheless, the first opinion is much to be commended, so that children, from their first age, may become accustomed to the yoke of the Lord.
- III. Drunken persons, and those delirious for a time, remain subject to positive laws. The reason: because the law which reached them when they had arrived at the use of reason perseveres in retaining its force upon them, as still enjoying reason habitually.
Whence, if in the time of drunkenness or delirium they do something prohibited by positive law, for example, if they use forbidden foods, they violate the law materially; although, on account of defect of actual knowledge, they are excused from formal sin. "For it is one thing not to be held to law, as children and the insane are not held to laws; another thing to be excused from law, as the drunken, the ignorant, and those sleeping are excused. Hence it is a sin to offer meats on a forbidden day to the second group, but not to the first; just as also it is a sin to incite all those persons to something evil by natural right" (I, n. 153, 155; ed. G., I, p. 131).