Roman Catholics are accustomed to seeing children around the age of 7 receive holy communion for the first time. Yet, that practice is relatively new in the Catholic Church and until the 13th century, both East and West distributed communion to infants.
St. Augustine wrote about this practice in one of his sermons.
The Catholic Encyclopedia also affirms this historical practice.
Eventually the Council of Trent curtailed this practice in the Western Church, explaining the need for children to understand the difference between ordinary bread and the consecrated host.
Yet, while the Roman Church moved away from infant communion, it was done so for pastoral reasons and not theological ones. It has been long held that the Eucharist is the final sacrament in Christian initiation, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains.
In the Eastern Church, the sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist) are celebrated together at whatever age a person enters the Church. In most cases, this occurs shortly after birth as an infant.
The Code of Eastern Canon Law affirms this idea and still permits infant communion for this reason.
In the end, infant communion is still practiced in Eastern Churches in order to preserve the sacraments of initiation and to provide even little children the special graces they need. The Roman Church decided to abandon the practice in favor of conscious participation in the sacrament. Either way, both practices are valid and part of the rich tradition of the Catholic Church.
