Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/664

 QUAMICHAN

590

QUAM

of contrariety. A figure cannot be more or less tri- angular than another, though one man may be more wise than another; and there is no contrary to red; though just is contrary to unjust. The category, in its predicamental sense, involves that of relation, as is noted by Aristotle. The answer to Qualis' asked of the concrete man, is talis — such as so-and-so. Meta- physically considered, no relation of this kind need be involved. The substance, or nature, is talis because of the accidental form that determines it absolutely, without reference to anv standard of comparison.

Abistotle. Opera omnia (Paris. 1619) ; Grote, AristolU (Lon- don, 1872): LoRENZELU. PhUosophiw TheoretioB Ijistitutioncs (Rome. 1S96); Mehcieh. Ontologie (Louvain, 1902); Nts, Cosmoloffie (Louvain, 1906) ; St. Thomas Aquinas. Opera (Parma, 1852), (cf. especially, De natura generis, De natura accidentis).

Frakcis Aveling.

Quamichan Indiajis, the largest of the numerous small bands attached to Cowichan agency, at the south-east end of Vancouver, British Columbia. They are of iSalishan stock and speak the Cowichan language, which is sjjokcn also by several of the as- sociated bands as well as upon the opposite main- land. Their chief settlement is in Cowichan valley, about forty miles north of Mctoria. In their primi- tive condition they subsisted by fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild berries and roots. Their customs, beliefs, and ceremonials were practically the same as those of their neighbours, the Songish and Sechelt. Frs. J. B. Bolduc and Modeste Demers visited them as early as 1847, but they were chiefly converted by the Oblate Fathers, who ar- rived at Victoria in ISo". They are now civilized, industrious, and moral, in fairly good houses, living by farming, fishing, hunting, and by working on the railway, in canneries, etc. From probably 1000 souls sixty years ago, they have been reduced by small- pox and other diseases to 300 in 1901, and 260 in 1909, of whom all but about 60 are reported to be Catholics, the rest Methodists (see also Songish Indians).

Dept. of Indn. .-Vffairs (Canada); Annual Repts. (Ottawa); MORICE, Catholic Church in Western Canada (Toronto. 1910).

James Moonet.

Quam singlllari, a decree of the Sacred Congrega- tion of the Sacraments, S .\ugust, 1910, on the age at which children are to be admitted to first Communion, officially promulgated 15 August, 1910 (.\cta Apost. Sedis, i.5 August, 1910). The historical facts nar- rated in the "(^uam singulari" prove that (a) it is not a decree inaugurating a new discipline, but one re- storing the ancient and universal law of the Church, wherever it has not been observed (Pius X to Card. Abp. of Cologne. 31 December, 1910); (b) the custom of giving Holy Communion to infants immediately after baptism, and frequently before the beginning of their rational life, has been modified but never con- demned; it is even approved to-day among the Greeks and Orientals; (c) the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215, can. xxi) has never been revoked or modified, and in virtue of it all are obliged, as soon as they arrive at the years of discretion, to receive both the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion at Easter time; (d) the "testimony of the greatest authority, St. Thomas Aquinas", interpreting the Council, states that the Lateran decree obliges "chil- dren when they begin to have some use of reason " (also Ledesma, Vasquez, St. Antoninus); (e) the Council of Trent confirmed the Lateran decree pronouncing anathema again.st all who deny "that the faithful of both sexes who have attained the use of reason are obliged to receive Holv Communion every year, at least at Easter time" "(Sess. XIII, de Euch., c. viii, can. ix).

Errors condemned by the "Quam singulari". — (a) A greater discretion is required for first Communion than for first Confession, (b) To receive Holy Com- munion a more complete knowledge of the articles of

Faith is required. This erroneous opinion, demanding with Jansenism (1) extraordinarj- preparation, thereby deferring Communion "for the riper age" of twelve, fourteen, or even older ("absolutely forbidden"), makes (2) "the Holy Eucharist a reward and not a remedy for human frailty", which is contrary to the teaching of the Council of Trent that Holy Commu- nion is "an antidote by which we are freed from our daily faults and preserved from mortal sins". The error assumes (3) what may be false — that riper years and more complete instruction give better dispositions than the innocence and candour of more tender years. As first Communion is not essentially different from any other Communion the extraordinary preparation here- tofore demanded is (4) contrary to the "Sacra Triden- tina", which for daily communicants, including chil- dren, requires only the state of grace and a good intention.

Abuses following from errors.^(a) Depri\'ing the child from the beginning of its rational life of the right of living in Christ through Holy Communion, a right given by baptism; (b) causing the loss of angelic first innocence in many by those years of deprivation of Christ and of graces, years for many the seed-time for snares and ^-ices, all of which might have been avoided; (c) causing, by the custom of some places, children to live in the state of sin by not allow- ing them to go to confession until the age determined for first Communion, or of den\-ing them absolution when they confessed ("absolutely condemned" and "to be done away with by ordinaries as the law per- mits"); (d) denying the Viaticum to dying children who had not received their first Communion, and burj-ing these as infants, thereby depriving them of the suffrages of the Church, to which they were en- titled ("utterly detestable", "ordinaries to proceed severely against these").

Conditions for first Confession arid first Communion. — (a) The age of discretion, which applies equally to both sacraments. This may be judged (1) by the first indication of the child using its reasoning powers; (2) by the child knowing what is right from wrong. No determined age is placed as a condition; the age of seven is mentioned because the majority of children arrive at the years of discretion, that is, begin to reaison, about this period, some sooner, some later.

(b) .\ knowledge such as a child just beginning to reason can have about one God, Who rewards the good and punishes the wicked, and about the mys- teries of the Trinity and the Incarnation. It is not necessarj' that the child should commit to memorj' accurate theological definitions, which may con- vey no idea to the little mind just beginning to unfold.

(c) A child must be able to distinguish the Eucharistic from the common bread: that is, to know that what looks like bread is not bread, but contains the real, living Body and Blood of Christ, (d) Children should be taught to receive Holy Communion devoutly, (e) Children should be instructed on the necessity of being in the state of grace and of having a good intention, also (f) of fasting from midnight before Communion.

Obligation of admitting children to first Communion. — When children begin to reason, the obligation of re- cicNnng Holy Communion is Divine as well as ecclesi- astical. The subject-matter of the decree (a) is there- fore a grave one obliging under serious sin, (1) children themselves if they know of and maliciously neglect their obligation; (2) those responsible for the children: father, mother, instructors, rectors of colleges, principals of schools, superiors of communities and children's asy- lums, all who have parental responsibility, confessors, and pastors, (b) A grave obligation devolving on all above mentioned is to encourage children after first Communion to approach the altar frequently, even daily, if possible. Those (c1 responsible for childreR should regard ;vs "their most important duty" that the incomplete instruction given before first Communion