Duties of Parents, Pastors, Confessors

Duties of Parents, Pastors, Confessors in Reference to Communion.—(a) Parents.—The obligation of the Easter duty for boys under fourteen and for girls under twelve rests morally and juridically upon the consciences of those who are charged with their care, namely, parents, guardians, pastors, and confessors (see 2630, 2631). The parents are the best judges of the mental development, moral disposition and instruction of their children, and therefore of their fitness for First Communion (Canons 860, 854, n. 4).

(b) Confessors.—The decision or counsel about the fitness of children for First Communion, of penitents for frequent or daily Communion, about the frequency of the Viaticum, is left by the Church to the prudence of the confessor (Canons 860, 863, 864, 858, n.2).

(c) Pastors.—The Code prescribes that pastors be especially zealous in the matter of holding Lenten classes for the instruction of children in order that they may receive their First Communion worthily; it vests in the pastor the duty of seeing that no child approaches First Communion who has not the use of reason or proper dispositions, as well as of seeing that those children who are fit receive Communion without delay; it also requires that he provide for the fuller instruction in Christian doctrine of children who have made their First Communion (Canons 1330, 854, n. 5, 1331). Pastors should recommend to their people the practices of frequent Communion and of worthy Communion at every Mass they hear, and should take care that the dying receive the Viaticum while they are in possession of their mental faculties (Canons 863, 865). On the duty of administering Communion see 2676.