Case XLVII: Mistaken Adherence to the Rule an Obstacle to Daily Communion in Convents

There are still here and there communities of women who are deprived of the precious boon of daily Communion, granted and earnestly recommended by the Holy Father, the head of all religious orders upon earth. This deprivation is due to their immediate superior, who considers daily Communion to be incompatible with the routine imposed by rules and customs.

Question.—Who has power to remedy this evil?

In such cases it is the duty of the Head of the Order and of the confessor to overcome the prejudices of the responsible persons, by explaining the papal decree of December 20, 1905, and seeing that it is fully carried out. In this way the religious will be enabled to enjoy their privileges. The following points especially must be kept in view:

( 1 ) Although the confessor should not interfere in the domestic arrangements of the house, it is his duty to discharge the confessor’s duty of teaching and admonishing, not only in the case of the subordinate Sisters, but also emphatically in that of the local Superior and her advisers. In publishing the decree, the Holy Father paid particular attention to religious communities, including those of women, as appears clearly from sections 7 and 8, where it is laid down that " freedom of access to the Eucharistic table, whether frequently or daily, must always be allowed them... and in order that all religious of both sexes may clearly understand the provisions of this decree, the Superior of each house is to see that it is read in community, in the vernacular, every year within the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi."

Members of religious Orders, above all other Christians, are bound to obey the Holy Father's instructions, for he is the head of all Orders, it is to him that they have taken a vow of obedience, and so they are pledged to obey him, although not always ex formali obedientia voti, yet at least from the virtue of monastic obedience. The confessor ought to admonish the local superior not merely to inculcate obedience in words and to require it for her own regulations, but also to encourage her subjects to render it most zealously to the supreme head of all religious Orders. It is the duty of the confessor and of the Mother General to show how daily Communion can be arranged in conjunction with the Mass at which the Sisters assist daily, and their other spiritual exercises, so that there may be sufficient time for preparation and thanksgiving without altering the prescribed routine more than is absolutely necessary. It will then be the local Superior's business to announce this re-arrangement of the day's duties to the community, and to see that it is carried into effect.

(2) The confessor ought to adhere closely to the decree in dealing with the individual religious in confession. In section 5 it is stated: " That the practise of frequent and daily Communion may be carried out with greater prudence and more abundant merit, the confessor's advice should be asked." This shows plainly that the penitent, if of the requisite dispositions, i. e. if in a state of grace and of right and pious intention, does not need a positive permission on the part of his confessor to communicate daily, since it is bestowed by the Holy Father himself; but the penitent will do well to act on the confessor's advice. With a religious a confessor should also regard himself as a counselor, not as one empowered to command, provided the penitent has the right dispositions.

(3) He must beware of forbidding a religious in these dispositions to receive Communion daily, for the decree says explicitly in section 1: "No one who is in the state of grace, and who approaches the holy table with a right and devout intention, can lawfully be hindered therefrom." And in section 5: " Confessors are to be careful not to dissuade any one from frequent and daily Communion, provided that he is in a state of grace and approaches with a right intention."

In his dissertation on " Frequent and daily Communion," Father Haettenschwiller, S.J., remarks: " It would be a mistake on the part of a confessor to a community of women, since the publication of the decree, if he were to say: ' Hitherto you have gone to Communion four times each week; in future you may go every day except on the day appointed for your confession.' "

In the same work it is declared as quite contrary to the spirit of the Church, for postulants and novices, who perhaps communicated daily as long as they were in the world, to be forbidden to do so in the convent, simply to make a difference between them and professed nuns. It would also be a mistake to debar any one from Holy Communion as a punishment for some fault, and a still greater mistake for the Superior to do this. According to the decree " Quemadmodum " of December 17, 1890, article V, a Superior may forbid a subject to receive Holy Communion, not as a punishment, but to avoid scandal, if since her last confession she has given scandal to the community, or committed some serious and notorious offense; but the prohibition can last only until she has again been to confession.

These are a few suggestions that may be of use in removing the alleged obstacles to frequent and daily Communion in communities of women.—Johann Schwienbacher, C.SS.R.