INFERMITÀ. — Illness is one of the grounds for exemption from or dispensation from ecclesiastical laws. At times slight illness is sufficient, whereas at other times serious illness is required, and in some cases the danger of death itself (v. PERICOLO di).
1. Non-serious illness exempts one from the obligation of hearing Mass on feast days of obligation; indeed, a slight indisposition is sufficient if there is prudent fear that hearing Mass might aggravate II. 2. Illness arising even merely from a state of weakness, or considered to result from the insufficient nutritive power of Lenten foods, as well as the fear that Lenten foods might prejudice the beneficial effect of medicines prescribed by the physician, constitutes sufficient cause for exemption from the law of abstinence. 3. The same reasons of constitutional weakness, a state of convalescence, headache, or insomnia exempt one from the law of the ecclesiastical fast. 4. Illness that makes it possible to receive Communion as Viaticum automatically exempts one 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). Moreover, the sick who have been bedridden for a month, without hope of prompt recovery, may, on the advice of their confessor, receive Communion once or twice a week, even if they have taken medicines or other substances in the form of drink (can. 858 § 2). 5. Serious illness, even if not dangerous, authorizes religious women to request any priest approved by the Ordinary of the place to hear the confessions of women, even if he has not been appointed for religious women, and to confess to him during their illness as often as they wish (can. 523). 6. Serious illness also excuses one from the integrity of Confession: that is, when the sick person, because of weakness, is unable to make himself understood, or there is fear that he may faint or become excessively exhausted while confessing all his sins. 7. Finally, the sick, even when not seriously ill, who are prevented from performing or taking part in the pious exercise of the Vin Crucis, may gain its indulgences merely by holding a blessed Crucifix in their hand and reciting twenty Pater, Ave e Gloria. The more seriously ill, who are unable even to do this, may limit themselves to kissing or looking at the Crucifix, even though it is held by another, and to reciting some brief prayer or ejaculation in memory of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ (S. Penitenzieria Apost., 25 March 1931: AAS, 23 [1931], p. 167).
With regard to the illnesses required for receiving Extreme Unction, V. voce; for the pastoral and ascetical problems relating to illness: V. SOFFERENZA.