First communion present from protestant aunt

[kaffkooks]

My niece is having her first communion in a few weeks. She is asking a lot of questions about why her dad, auties and granny can't take mass at her church and why her cousins (my children) won't have a first communion. I've spoken to her a bit about it but are there any good books/DVDs that explain the reformation for a fairly intelligent 8 year old? Ideally something fairly balanced. Her Dad is an atheist so he doesn't know how to answer her questions.

Has she asked her catechists some of those questions? They might be best placed to answer.

A book on the reformation would be an unusual first comunion gift. I think there’s a chance that it could be taken the wrong way.

I'd have thought at that age "Because some of us are protestants and the Catholic Church do not allow Protestants to take Communion, and your Dad has decided that he does not believe in God at all, so obviously wouldn't be having communion in any Church"" would be enough of an answer to that - she doesn't need a book on the Reformation.

"Because only Catholics are able to receive communion in a Catholic church". This would be enough, it's a pretty simple question.

Just tell her, Only catholics take the host, but your cousins can go to the alter for a blessing instead

Easy

Are you her guardian?

If not then it is not your place to be answering these questions.

Whichever adult is caring fer her has the legal right to decide her faith path and give explanations.
Not you.

The reformation is complicated.

One way of answering might be that the rules of the RC church do not allow non RC to receive communion in the RC church. Lots of people don't like theses rules and some are working to change them but for now we respect them as they are the rules.

That conversation could go a lot of directions depending on the 8 year old.

The “rules” are there because Catholics believe that communion is the Body and Blood or Jesus while (most) Protestants don’t. It is considered disrespectful to receive communion when your faith tradition teaches you something very different about what it is. Communion is the center of the Mass for Catholics. It is the same for the Eastern churches, communion would usually not to be open to those who believe very different things.

The reasons the Catholic and Orthodox and other ancient churches such as the Copts believe this are many but St. Paul also warns that we should not take communion “unworthily” 11 Corinthians verse 27-29. It is not for reason of exclusion, it is because we believe entirely different things, the ancient churches believe communion is sacred and holy and should be treated as such.

Because you go to this church we don't go to your church, is enough surely a book about the reformation is going to tell her that her religion/denomination was supressed and seen as wrong kinda going to put a slight on her day!

Whichever adult is caring fer her has the legal right to decide her faith path and give explanations.

shouldn't the individual themselves decide their 'faith path'?

Unless you actually believe indoctrination is a good thing, then the more inputs a child has - from Protestant auntie, atheist dad, maybe other faiths entirely - the better, surely?

There are surely some parts of the child's questions which can be answered straightforwardly. E.g.

'why her cousins (my children) won't have a first communion'

Well, with details depending on which Protestant denomination, you could explain that if your children decide in due course that they are Christians they will indeed have a 'first communion', after confirmation/membership classes, or adult baptism or whatever. (This is a child with an atheist father so the notion that not all people are Christians presumably won't be shocking )

She’s only 7, I really wouldn’t get into the reformation! I did it for A level and still got bogged down!

Some Protestants do have first communion, our local CofE church is Anglo-Catholic and children can do First communion there.

We had this the other way round. I basically said "different religions have different rules and customs. This is a Catholic Church and their rule is that only catholics take communion and they have to be a certain age. They have a service for catholic children taking communion for the first time and they can take communion after that. We are in their church so we respect their rules and customs. If you like you can go and have a blessing and I'll come with you or you can stay here." They all understood.

Grundtal that was very nicely said. Although of course Catholics are Christian and not a different religion if you are Christian.

Weepingwillow I appreciate that there are a few high Anglican churches that do believe in the Body and Blood which is why I qualified it with “most”. However, because they reject so many Catholic and Orthodox teachings they could not receive in those churches.