Confession/Reconciliation

Children shall be prepared for and given the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance before their first reception of the Eucharist. The child’s readiness for the celebration of the sacrament is to be determined by the child, the parent, and the pastor or his delegate.

A child’s readiness for the celebration of the sacrament is to be judged using the criteria:

• A trust in God’s forgiving love.
• A sense of belonging to the Church community.
• An understanding of forgiveness, a desire to give and receive forgiveness.
• A sense of right and wrong and of the reality of evil.
• A knowledge of sin, an ability to describe wrongdoing in his/her own words.
• An ability to say, "I’m sorry" to express a sense of repentance.