INFIRMITY. - Infirmity is one of the grounds for exemption or dispensation from ecclesiastical laws. Sometimes a slight infirmity suffices, sometimes, however, a serious infirmity is required, and in some cases even the danger of death itself (v. DEATH, DANGER OF).
1. A slight infirmity excuses from the obligation of hearing Mass on prescribed holy days; indeed, even a minor ailment suffices if one prudently fears that hearing Mass might aggravate the condition. 2. Infirmity arising even merely from a state of weakness or feared due to the insufficient nutritive power of Lenten foods, as well as the fear that Lenten foods might impair the beneficial effect of medicines prescribed by a physician, is sufficient cause to excuse from the law of abstinence. 3. The same reasons of physical weakness, a state of convalescence, headache, or insomnia excuse from the ecclesiastical law of fasting. 4. Infirmity that renders possible the reception of Communion in the form of viaticum excuses altogether from the eucharistic fast. Indeed, as long as the danger of death persists, the sick person may receive Holy Communion even daily without fasting (can. 864 § 2, 3). Moreover, those sick persons confined to bed for a month without hope of prompt recovery may, with the advice of their confessor, receive Communion once or twice a week, even if they have taken medicines or other liquids (can. 858 § 2). 5. A serious infirmity, even if not dangerous, authorizes religious women to request any priest approved by the local Ordinary for the confessions of women, even if he is not designated for religious, and to confess to him during illness as often as they wish (can. 523). 6. A serious infirmity also excuses from the integrity of confession: that is, when the sick person, due to weakness, is unable to make himself understood, or there is fear that he might faint or become excessively fatigued in confessing all his sins. 7. Finally, even those who are not seriously ill but are prevented from taking part in the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross may gain the indulgences by merely holding a blessed crucifix in their hand and reciting twenty Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glorias. Those who are more seriously ill, and even prevented from doing this, may limit themselves to kissing or looking at the crucifix, even if held by another, and reciting some brief prayer or ejaculation in memory of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ (S. Pentinzieri Apost., 25 March 1931; AAS, 23 [1931], p. 107).
Regarding the infirmities required to receive Extreme Unction, V. under that heading; for pastoral and ascetical issues pertaining to infirmity, V. SUFFERING.