Chapter I. On the Confession of Children

I. "With children he ought to use every charity and gentler ways, as far as can be done" (Praxis, n. 90); nevertheless the confessor, especially as regards girls, should always be mindful of due gravity.

II. Sometimes it must be seen whether they enjoy sufficient use of reason, although those who present themselves to the confessor can commonly be presumed sufficiently instructed.

III. Let the confessor take care that from the beginning they learn to confess rightly according to species and number. In questioning let him be cautious, lest the child learn to sin; besides this, let him correct an erroneous conscience when they take for a sin, or for a grave sin, what is no sin or only a light sin. Let the confessor strive especially for this: that he excite the child to true contrition. If some child is found prone to a more harmful sin, for instance to a shameful sin, let him take pains that the vice be eradicated in time (St. Alphonsus, Praxis Confessarii, nn. 90 and 91). Let the admonition be brief.

IV. As regards the sentence to be rendered, let the confessor follow this norm:

1. Those sufficiently certainly disposed are to be absolved, even if they have confessed only venial sins; since disposed children have a right to absolution just as adults do. Besides this, let him not easily defer absolution for a relapsing child sufficiently certainly disposed, lest, namely, the child be turned away from the sacrament or keep back sins.

2. Those doubtfully disposed are to be absolved under condition: 1. if they have certainly sinned gravely, they are to be absolved in the cases enumerated in n. 404; 2. in doubt whether they are guilty of grave sin, they are always to be absolved, whether the doubt proceeds from the matter of the sin, or from doubt about the full use of reason, or from suspicion of an erroneous conscience by which what is not grave is taken as grave; 3. if either they have sinned only venially, or it is doubted whether any sin was present, sometimes they are to be absolved (St. Alphonsus, Praxis Confessarii, n. 91; VI, 432). If they are dismissed with only a blessing, this should be signified to them.

Corollary I. Even to children there must be left the faculty of confessing to whomever they prefer; hence one who would establish that children should confess only to him who taught them Christian doctrine, or that girls should confess to the pastor and boys to the vicar, is especially to be reprehended.

Corollary II. A recent question was moved whether boys and girls before the years of puberty can sin gravely. Moreover, the affirmative answer must altogether be given. For first, the decree Quam singulari, issued by Pius X through the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments,² declares that children around the seventh year of age are bound by the precept of annual confession. But it would not declare these things unless it judged that children from that age are capable of mortal sin, because only those who have committed mortal sin are in fact bound to confession. There is added that the decree, with the Council of Trent, on one side teaches that children are held by the obligation of Communion "when by sinning they can lose grace"; in other words, when they can sin gravely; on the other side it declares that they are bound by the said obligation around the seventh year. Therefore, according to the mind of the one issuing the decree, grace can be lost at that age; in other words, grave sin can be committed. In addition, the decree disapproves delay of Communion for this reason, that it exposes children to the danger of losing their first innocence; this demonstrates that they are held as capable of grave sin. Finally, the whole manner of acting of children before the years of puberty shows sufficiently that they are capable of fully deliberate acts and therefore also of gravely sinful acts.

¹ Cf. Reuter, Neoconfessarius; Berger, Pastoraltheologie; Gaume, Manuel des confesseurs; Aertnys, Theologia Pastoralis; Krieg, Wissenschaft der Seelenleitung; Schuch-Polz, Pastoraltheologie.

² August 8, 1910.