Illness

ILLNESS. - I. is one of the causes for excuse or dispensation from ecclesiastical laws. Sometimes a slight i. is sufficient, at other times a grave i. is required, and in some cases even the danger of death itself (v. DEATH, DANGER of).

1. A non-grave i. exempts from the obligation to hear Mass on holy days of precept; indeed, even a slight indisposition of health is sufficient, if one prudently fears that, by hearing Mass, it might worsen. 2. An i. caused even only by a state of weakness or by the insufficient nourishing power of lean foods, as well as the fear that lean foods might impair the beneficial effect of medicines prescribed by the doctor, is a sufficient cause to excuse from the law of abstinence. 3. The same reasons of weakness of constitution, the state of convalescence, headache or insomnia, excuse from the law of ecclesiastical fasting. 4. An i. that makes Communion possible under the form of viaticum excuses without further ado from the eucharistic fast. Indeed, as long as the danger of death lasts, the sick person may receive Holy Communion without fasting even daily (can. 864 §§ 2, 3). Furthermore, the sick who have been bedridden for a month, without hope of prompt recovery, may, with the counsel of their confessor, communicate once or twice a week, even if they have taken medicine or other things in the manner of a drink (can. 858 § 2). 5. A grave i., though not dangerous, authorizes religious women to request any priest approved by the local Ordinary for the confessions of women, even if he is not deputed for religious women, and to confess to him during their illness, as many times as they wish (can. 523). 6. A grave i. also excuses from the integrity of Confession: that is, when the sick person, because of weakness, cannot make himself understood, or it is feared that he might faint or grow excessively tired in confessing all his sins. 7. Finally, the sick, even if not gravely ill, who are prevented from performing or taking part in the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross, can gain its indulgences even merely by holding a blessed Crucifix in their hand and reciting twenty Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. The more gravely ill, who are unable even to do this, may limit themselves to kissing or looking at the Crucifix, even if it is held in the hand of another, and to reciting some brief prayer or ejaculation in memory of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Apostolic Penitentiary, 25 March 1931: AAS, 23 [1931], p. 167).

Regarding the i. required for receiving Extreme Unction, v. under this heading; for the pastoral and ascetical problems pertaining to i.: v. SUFFERING.

Andrea Gennaro