Case LXXXIII: Dispensation from the Obligation to Communicate Fasting

Anna is an invalid, subject to violent attacks of coughing, with a tendency to vomit; she has suffered from this ailment for a long time and finds that nothing relieves it but the use of a certain medicine. It is a great grief to her that she is thus deprived of Holy Communion, which she would wish to receive daily. She has read in some religious paper that, on December 7, 1906, the Holy Father granted to sick people certain mitigations of the rule that Holy Communion must be received fasting. Accordingly she asks her confessor whether, in virtue of this decree, she may communicate after taking her medicine, and, if not, whether it would not be possible for her to obtain permission to do so.

What answer ought to be given?

The first question must be answered in the negative, for Anna is able to go out, and the concessions were made only for sick people, who, though they may not be in danger of death, have already been laid up (decumbunt) for a month, or, according to the declaration of March 6, 1907, are able to get up only for a few hours daily "they cannot remain in bed, or are able to rise from it for a few hours of the day." These concessions, moreover, do not apply to daily Communion but to Communion twice in the month, or, in pious households where the Blessed Sacramentis reserved or where Mass may be said in a private chapel, to Communion twice in the week, both de confessarii consilio.

With regard to the second question, the following course may be suggested to Anna.

1. Let her address a petition to the Holy Father that her Confessor may write out in her name. It may run as follows:

Most Blessed Father! Although N. N. of the Diocese of N. is not bedridden, nevertheless because of ill health it is morally impossible for her to observe the natural fast prescribed before Communion. Therefore, prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, she humbly asks the faculty of taking something by way of drink before she approaches to receive Holy Communion daily or frequently.

Loco N. die... Pro oratrice N. N. confessarius N. N.

2. The petition must be sent to the Sacra Congr. de Sacramentis through the Bishop of the diocese and be recommended by him. For this reason the confessor should despatch it to the ordinary, and send with it a note, stating that he can vouch for the truth of the reasons that it contains for appealing to the Holy Father.

3. The Sacra Congr. is in the habit of dealing with such petitions by authorizing the Bishop to allow the petitioner to make a definite number of Communions in the week: "The Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, by virtue of the faculties granted to it by our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius X, having considered the matters set forth, graciously entrusts to the Ordinary of N. the granting, according to his judgment and conscience, of permission to the petitioner to take something by way of drink before Most Holy Eucharistic Communion four times a week, but only while her ill health continues, with the advice of her confessor and with scandal removed."

4. The ordinary then forwards the document relating to the dispensation, that he is now authorized to give, to the petitioner through her confessor. It remains then for the latter to explain to his penitent the concession granted her by the Holy Father, that she may understand what is permissible for her to do, as long as she continues in the same state of health. At the same time a note is added, stating what the cost of the proceedings has been.—Johann Schwienbacher, C.SS.R.