| Persons who are profoundly mentally retarded cannot meet rational-cognitive criteria for receiving communion. In some parts of the church, as among the Eastern Orthodox, infants are admitted to communion. For a thousand years (c. 200 to 1200) both Western and Eastern churches communed infants. By demonstrating that the two unique groups of persons share similar levels of conceptual development, this study connects the issue of communing infants and the issue of communing persons who are profoundly mentally retarded. The origin and history of the infant communion debate are described, and, where evidence is available, the church's directives regarding the communing of persons who are profoundly mentally retarded are included. The present status of the infant communion debate is described and analyzed. The historical research on infant communion is applied to the practice of communing persons who are profoundly mentally retarded.;From the applied research a sound theological rationale for administering communion to persons who are profoundly mentally retarded is developed. The paper demonstrates that the very nature of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper speaks for the inclusion of persons called profoundly mentally retarded. Modern theological emphases on the eschatological nature of the eucharist push by implication for the integration of persons called profoundly mentally retarded at the communion table. Inclusion is a witness to the psychological and spiritual fact that the experience of life and faith is not one dimensional. Life encompasses more than merely the conscious, rational processes. Further, the nature of community as defined by cultural anthropology suggests that not only should profoundly mentally retarded persons be included but that their inclusion would also serve a humanizing function for society. Spiritual renewal for the church and the society that the church is in can be facilitated by a return to the context of primitive church celebrations--the inclusive context in which the church through its members actively seeks to include the isolated and oppressed persons of society in the church's eucharistic fellowship. |
