§ 4. On Causes Excusing from the Law of Fasting and Abstinence

All excusing causes can be reduced to two general causes, namely: a) dispensation, and b) inability (whether physical or moral).

664. a) Dispensation. The following can dispense from the ecclesiastical law of abstinence and fasting:

1. The Pope for the whole Church. Indeed, the Pope can abolish ecclesiastical fasting for some time for a reasonable cause, as he has already sometimes done for certain regions when an epidemic was raging there.

2. Bishops and other local Ordinaries, for the particular cause of a great concourse of the people or of public health, can dispense the whole diocese or some place, even only one parish, from fasting and abstinence for some time. Thus by common law.¹²⁶¹ By special delegation still greater faculties are customarily granted to them.

3. Pastors (and a fortiori local Ordinaries), in individual cases and for a just cause, can dispense individual subjects of theirs or individual families from the law of abstinence and fasting (or even from each law).

This faculty of bishops and pastors to dispense extends also to travelers staying in their territory.¹²⁶²

4. Superiors in an exempt clerical religious institute (but not other superiors), in the same manner as pastors for parishioners, can dispense not only their individual professed religious and novices, but also individual so-called familiars and continual table companions.¹²⁶³

Note. A confessor cannot indeed by his own authority dispense from the law of fasting; nevertheless, when a case occurs, he can declare that sufficient reasons for not fasting are present. Superioresses of nuns have the same right of declaring with respect to their subjects. But when the bishop has given the faculty of dispensing to all confessors, then a confessor can also dispense himself; this, however, is not expedient in practice, since no one ought to be judge in his own cause. Unless it is expressly stated in the faculty of dispensing that the confessor enjoys such a faculty in sacramental confession or in the tribunal of penance, the confessor can lawfully dispense from the law of fasting even outside the confessional. If the excusing cause is evident and certain, anyone can exempt himself from fasting, especially if otherwise some notable inconvenience would occur.

¹²⁶¹ Code of Canon Law, canon 1245, § 2. Cf. Pontifical Commission, March 12, 1929 (Act. Ap. Sed. XXI, 170).

¹²⁶² Code of Canon Law, canon 1245, §§ 1 and 2.

¹²⁶³ Ib., § 3.

665. b) Inability. Since the ecclesiastical law of abstinence and fasting is a positive law, it does not bind with great inconvenience, but any serious inability (even moral) excuses. Hence the following are excused:

1. All the sick and convalescent, and all who would have notable pain of the head or stomach from fasting. Sexagenarians also are exempted from fasting, for old age is itself a disease. There are certain authors who exempt all women fifty years of age from fasting, but several others deservedly contradict them; for there is no reason why women should be treated more leniently on this point, at least if they do not labor under a special infirmity. For experience establishes that women can sustain fasting more easily than men. For both men and women, however, the sixtieth year begun suffices, as was said above, n. 660. Pregnant or nursing women are likewise excused, since by fasting they would harm the child.

2. The poor, who do not have sufficient food, or whose food is not sufficiently nutritive. Hence not only those who are compelled to beg are excused, but also very many other persons of lower condition, who are nourished by little food and nevertheless are compelled to perform sufficiently heavy labors. In our days and in our regions, for this reason a great part of Catholics is excused from the strict observance of ecclesiastical fasting.

3. All who must perform heavy bodily labors. In order that a labor be called heavy, absolute heaviness is not required (for the same labor can be heavy for one and light for another), but it must be joined with great weariness of the laborer. Such wearying labors are exercised, for example, by blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, diggers, shoemakers, many farmers, bakers, and very many others who work in factories where machines moved by steam or electricity greatly excite and weary the nerves. It pertains to a prudent man or confessor to determine which labors are heavy, after all the circumstances of persons and things have been considered. Travelers also are often excused from fasting; and not only those who must make a journey of four or five leagues on foot (as the older moralists hold), but also those who make a journey throughout the whole day by railroad or ship; for experience establishes that journeys of this kind also cause much weariness, and, moreover, that a sufficient complete meal is then often not available because of a lack either of sufficient time or of sufficient hunger on account of the excitation of the nerves.

4. All who perform very wearying spiritual labors, for example, students who study much; professors who give lectures after laborious preparation, or who must give instruction daily for several hours, such as schoolmasters; confessors who hear confessions for many hours, for example, for six to eight hours in one day; preachers who, with great bodily movement and preparation of mind, preach several times each week (for about an hour).

666. Note. 1. Let a confessor furnished with a legitimate faculty not show himself too difficult in granting a dispensation from fasting, since in our days there are not so many lay faithful who can observe ecclesiastical fasting perfectly; for they are either burdened with very wearying labors, or enjoy weak health, or live in such circumstances that there is a sufficient cause for dispensing from ecclesiastical fasting. Nevertheless, let the confessor endeavor, as far as he can, that during the time of fasting the dispensed faithful perform other works of mortification or religion according to their capacity and good will. For it is of the greatest importance that the faithful be inwardly convinced of the necessity of practicing mortification and of the obligation of obeying the commands of the Church. Hence let the confessor counsel, or even enjoin, that the faithful who are unable to fast at least abstain from more delicate foods not necessary for health; or that they voluntarily deprive themselves of certain pleasures otherwise lawful; or that they restrain interior concupiscences more efficaciously; that they assist more frequently at Mass and the liturgical offices; in a word, that during the times of fasting they lead a fervent Christian life. Since abstinence from meat is customarily observed more easily than fasting, let the confessor dispense from this abstinence with greater difficulty than from fasting.

2. When a dispensation is granted on days of fasting or abstinence through episcopal mandates, certain prayers to be said or alms to be distributed are customarily imposed in place of fasting and abstinence. Certainly, he who uses a dispensation of this kind is bound either to say the prescribed prayer or to give the alms; nevertheless, this obligation is not grave, since the dispensation is granted absolutely and not only conditionally. Moreover, a grave obligation is never to be presumed, but it must be established with certainty; furthermore, bishops granting a dispensation of this kind do not speak of a grave obligation concerning these prayers and alms. If alms are prescribed for a determined end, then the bishop is to be obeyed also on this point, but likewise under a light and not a grave obligation.