THE parents of a boy with Down’s Syndrome accused the Catholic Church of ‘cruel discrimination’ last week for refusing to allow him to take Holy Communion.

Denum Ellarby, aged seven, attends a Roman Catholic primary school in West Yorkshire and his parents wanted him to join his classmates in their First Communion ceremony.

But they claim their parish priest refused to consider him for the necessary preparation classes because he would not sufficiently ‘understand the preparation’ or be able to ‘enjoy participation in Mass’.

“It’s scandalous that the child has been refused, unless they have a policy of waiting until eight for all other children in that locality,” said Father Denis Blackledge at Corpus Christi in Boscombe.

Father Denis was part of an international body 40 years ago set up to put children and adults with learning disabilities in prime slots at Lourdes, and told me he watched a little girl of about seven years of age with Down’s Syndrome dancing around the grotto at Lourdes just after she had took her first Holy Communion.

“The idea was to begin to take seriously the fact that no child with any disability should be refused Holy Communion anywhere, given suitable pastoral training of the parents,” he added.

Here, our Catholic churches normally wait until children are eight years of age for their first Holy Communion, preparing both the family and child, but I spoke with other denominations to see how they prepare.

At Christchurch Priory, Father Christopher Mann said that with their Bishop’s permission, parishes in the Church of England encouraged children to receive communion before confirmation, ‘provided they had taken part in some short course of preparation suited to their age’.

“This means that some children as young as seven are able to receive communion,” Father Mann told me. “The Parish of Christchurch has not gone down the line of admitting children to communion before confirmation. Children are prepared for confirmation anytime from Year Six at school upwards. After confirmation they can receive communion.”

Superintendent Minister of the Poole and Swanage circuit of the Methodist church, The Rev Chris Moreton said they normally encouraged a young person to have confirmation classes from 14 years of age.

“The Methodists have an ‘open table where any adult who acknowledges Jesus as Lord is welcome to participate and receive communion,” The Rev Moreton said.

West Cliff Baptist in Bournemouth has recently been through a review of how they deal with communion.

Pastor Richard Burfoot said: “There tends to be a tradition that the celebration follows baptism or confirmation, but for us the edges are much more blurred.

“There is no age requirement. It’s an expression of a person’s faith in Christ.

“The only criteria for participation is a personal relationship with Jesus. If a child is worshipping along with their family, we place the responsibility back on to the parents to make wise decisions on whether or not the child takes communion and request that the parent both takes and serves the bread and wine for the child.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see in action.”

Lay preacher Martin Oliver speaks at independent churches in Dorset where communion is called ‘breaking of bread’ or ‘the Lord’s supper’.

Martin added: “People take communion because they love the Lord Jesus as their personal saviour and there is no age limit on that.”