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SaintNobody
Guest
Are pregnant women exempt from the Communion fast?
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Joannm
Guest
The communion fast is one hour. Even if you eat something before leaving the house for mass, chances are it will be an hour before you receive communion. The only reason I could think of any pregnant woman needing to eat something every hour is if they are maybe diabetic or have morning sickness and a cracker helps ease that. An hour fast for a healthy pregnant woman is not going to hurt. I remember being pregnant and still fasting during Lent…one main meal and two smaller meals with nothing in between.
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1ke
Guest
No.
Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
If a pregnant woman needs to eat something within the hour fast they should refrain from the Eucharist.
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JMJ_coder
Guest
Hello,
Not to sound insensitive, but - it is just ONE HOUR!!! C’mon!!! Any person who is so ill as to need eating more than once an hour is probably too ill to attend Mass, I would think.
Not to sound insensitive, but - it is just ONE HOUR!!! C’mon!!! Any person who is so ill as to need eating more than once an hour is probably too ill to attend Mass, I would think.
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1ke
Guest
Morning sickness can arise suddenly and can be quelled with crackers and such. As I mentioned, if it becomes necessary to take care of morning sickness on the way to Church, during Church, etc, then just refrain from the Eucharist.
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puzzleannie
Guest
pregnant and nursing mothers who have a medical need to eat, and anyone else with a medical need to eat, have never been bound by Church laws on fast and abstinence. those laws are so minimal now it would be hard to find anyone, even a pregnant diabetic, who cannot follow them, but if indeed one needs (in the medical sense) to eat within an hour of receiving communion, one can safely do so and the only thing required is one’s own prudential judgement, not a dispensation.
I would only add that the common reason why a pregnant woman needs to eat is queasiness, and in that condition she should probably refrain from receiving communion, so as not do risk irreverence to the sacred species by vomiting.
I would only add that the common reason why a pregnant woman needs to eat is queasiness, and in that condition she should probably refrain from receiving communion, so as not do risk irreverence to the sacred species by vomiting.
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1ke
Guest
While you are correct regarding the discipline of fast days, which exempts the ill, elderly, and pregnant/nursing as well as those who must perform physical labor, Canon Law does **not **alllow for any exemption from the one hour fast before Communion except for medicine and water.
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SaintNobody
Guest
I was just wondering because I was hungry and I had to drive to Mass. That particular Mass is longish.
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Andreas_Hofer
Guest
False. The canon clearly exempts the infirm from even the 1-hour fast.
Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
§2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day can take something before the second or third celebration even if there is less than one hour between them.
§3. The elderly, the infirm, and those who care for them can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have eaten something within the preceding hour.
The intention of the canon is more geared toward those who rely on a visiting minister to administer communion (after all, how often would someone caring for another person not be able to keep the fast?), but it does not confine the exemption only to those circumstances. Still, the distinction brought up by others between eating out of a medical “need” as opposed to quelling queasiness (which I think my wife, who gets terrible nausea, would also argue is fairly “necessary”
) is probably helpful for determining whether a pregnant woman might break the fast.
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1ke
Guest
Yep. **I realized it too late to edit my post. **False. The canon clearly exempts the infirm from even the 1-hour fast.
Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
§2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day can take something before the second or third celebration even if there is less than one hour between them.
§3. The elderly, the infirm, and those who care for them can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have eaten something within the preceding hour.
The intention of the canon is more geared toward those who rely on a visiting minister to administer communion (after all, how often would someone caring for another person not be able to keep the fast?), but it does not confine the exemption only to those circumstances. Still, the distinction brought up by others between eating out of a medical “need” as opposed to quelling queasiness (which I think my wife, who gets terrible nausea, would also argue is fairly “necessary”
But, I don’t know if I would classify a pregnant woman as “infirm” simply based on pregnancy alone-- but others probably would. One could simply abstain from receiving at that Mass if in doubt.
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Andreas_Hofer
Guest
I think the exceptions to the rule (i.e. what persons are exempted) are not found in the canons themselves but in supplementary instructions (and possibly theological opinions) that develop the matter further. Thus, while the canons on fast and abstinence as penitential practices only exempt individuals based on age (younger than 14 for abstinence, younger than 18 and 59 and older for fast), EWTN also gives this list of exempt persons, some of which all might agree are correct even without a canon in front of them:
“**Those who are excused from fast or abstinence **Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, pregnant or nursing women according to need for meat or nourishment, manual laborers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing enmity and other situations of moral or physical impossibility to observe the penitential discipline.”
ewtn.com/faith/lent/fast.htm
(BTW, the list is offered by an apologist who holds a licentiate in canon law).
I agree that being pregnant does not make one “infirm,” per se, but I would hold out the possibility that if one judges there to be a necessity of eating at certain times that would fall within the window of the communion fast, the exemption of the infirm might also be applied to the pregnant.
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puzzleannie
Guest
I stick with my original advice, if the pregnant mommy is too queasy and feels the need of a cracker or something, she should probably not receive at all soon after eating it, and will obviously exercise her own prudent judgement as to the reason, and either go a later Mass if she feels better, or not receive at all that day, making a spiritual communion.
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Deacon_Ed_B
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Post # 9 is correct. Canon 919 #3 does state that The elderly, the infirm, and those who care for them can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have eaten something within the preceding hour. Those who bring Communion the the sick, to nursing homes and or in hospitals commonly catch these people when they have just eaten. The fast in no way applies to them any more. . This is the Church simply recognizing the realities of life when dealing with people. Sub paragraph 3, is a change from the previous law which required a fast of a quarter of an hour for the sick in hospitals or at home. Those who cared for them were bound by a one hour and 15 minute fast. (The fast time then was three hours). We see then that the Church is exercising the authority of ***binding and loosing ***as derived from scripture. This was accomplished under Pope John Paul II.
Deacon Ed B
Deacon Ed B
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