Person (Catholic canon law)

The age of reason is the age at which children attain the use of reason and begin to have moral responsibility. On completion of the seventh year a minor is presumed to have the use of reason,[3] but intellectual disability can prevent some individuals from ever attaining the use of reason. The term "use of reason" appears in the 1983 Code of Canon Law 17 times, but "age of reason" does not appear.[4] However, the term "age of reason" is used in canon law commentaries such as the New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law published by Paulist Press in 2002.

Children who do not have the use of reason and the mentally disabled are sometimes called "innocents" because of their inability to commit sins: even if their actions are objectively sinful, they sometimes lack capacity for subjective guilt.

In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Eucharist and Confirmation are given immediately after baptism, even to infants who do not yet have the use of reason. In Latin Rite Catholicism, Confirmation is conferred, except in danger of death, only on persons who have the use of reason;[5] and Holy Communion may be administered to children only if "they have sufficient knowledge and careful preparation so that they understand the mystery of Christ according to their capacity and are able to receive the Body of Christ with faith and devotion."[6] In danger of death, the Eucharist may be administered also to children who lack the use of reason, if the child can distinguish the sacrament from ordinary food and receive it reverently.[6] This is likewise true for those who have severe intellectual disabilities such that they are not assumed ever to gain the use of reason.

The age of majority in the Catholic Church is 18[7] following the consensus of Civil law, though, until Advent 1983,[8] the Age of Majority was 21 in the Latin Church,[9] based on the age of majority according to Roman Law.

1. Baptism: the sacrament can be validly administered regardless of age.
2. Confirmation: the canonical age is seven, the age of reason.
3. Holy Communion: the canonical age is seven , the age of reason. Children in danger of death, capable of committing and confessing to mortal sin, and of distinguishing heavenly from ordinary food, when desirous of receiving Holy Communion, must not be denied it, although they may not have achieved the minimum age prescribed.
4. Confession: the canonical age is seven, the age of reason. From this age, Catholics are bound by the law of annual confession.
5. Anointing of the Sick: the sacrament is to be administered to a Catholic of seven years or older.
6. Holy Orders: the sacrament can be received at the earliest at 23 years (deacons), 25 years (priest) or 35 years (bishop), according to canon 1031 CIC. Dispensations can be granted by the Apostolic See.
7. Marriage: the marriageable age is 16 years for males and 14 years for females. The same minimum age is required for a non-sacramental marriage (e.g. marriage between a Catholic and a non-Christian). Dispensations (by the Apostolic See) are theoretically possible, yet even theoretically only if the children in question have reached sexual maturity).

From the age of seven years, all Catholics are bound to hear Holy Mass on every Sunday and every holy day of obligation. To be a sponsor in the conferring of baptism and confirmation, they have to be confirmed and normally be 16 years old (canon 874 CIC). The days of abstinence are to be respected by Catholics of at least 14 years old; the law of fasting (i.e. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) from 18 till 59 years (canon 1252 CIC).

The ancient discipline was neither universal nor fixed, but varied with circumstances of time and locality. The requisite age, according to Gratian, for tonsure and the first three minor orders, those of doorkeeper, reader, and exorcist, was seven, and for acolyte, twelve years.

The Council of Trent fixed the ages of 21 years and 1 day for subdeaconship, 22 years and 1 day for deaconship, and 24 years and 1 day for priesthood. At present, the canon 1031 CIC fixed the ages of 23 for deaconship and 25 for priesthood. The first day of the year in which the canonical age is to be reached is sufficiently timely for the reception of the order. Trent confirmed the Lateran age of thirty years for the episcopate. The age for cardinals (including cardinal-deacons) was fixed by the Council at thirty years of age. Presently, the general age for a permanent deacon is thirty-five years of age.[15]

No age is fixed by law for election to the papacy.

Generals, provincials, abbots, and other regular prelates having quasi-episcopal jurisdiction must, according to many, have completed their thirtieth year before election; according to others, their 25th year. Various orders and congregations, however, have their own rules for the requisite ages for inferior offices and dignities.

The Council of Trent (Sess. xxv, cap. 7, de regular. et monial.) fixed forty years, and eight years after her profession, for an abbess, mother general, or prioress of a religious order of nuns. Could none such be found in a monastery (convent), then a nun over thirty years old and more than five years professed, can be elected. An election contrary to these rules is invalid.

For clothing with the religious habit or entrance into the novitiate, no age is fixed by decretal law.

For religious profession, the Council of Trent prescribes sixteen years of age, with one year of novitiate. The latest enactment, prescribing simple vows for three continuous years after the novitiate before solemn profession, fixes the age for solemn profession at nineteen years for both men and women.

1. "The Code of Canon Law: A Text and Commentary"—Edited by James A. Coriden, Thomas J. Green, Donald E. Heintschel (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1985).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Canonical Age". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.