A few years ago, as I was confessing, I received a penance requireing me to receive Holy Communion. This confession occured during the same mass I was told to receive and complete my penance. I replyed I did not fast for one hour. The priest told me to receive, I did as was instructed.
Last year I was told that the fasting requirement of one hour applied to me as well as the priest during my assistance/and or ministry at additional mass. If a priest celebrates multiple masses his fasting requirement remains one hour before the original mass. Two is the normal mass schedule yet often many will celebrate as needed.
It appears that the rules, as we view them, are often dismissed or altered to adept to the situation. This is evident by the numerous posting challeging and or labeling actions as abuse. Priest have a different outlook than we seem to hold. I have been told the G.I.R.M. is a guideline to be followed rather than a definitive statement! Check the opening pages of G.I.R.M.
The title itself leads to confusion. General rather than specific instructions.
There seems to be loopholes and exceptions that those that post on this site find uncomprehendable, thus adding to the confusion.
I see no, I repeat no, action in the near future that will change this course of action.
As for what you described, pastors can dispense from the 1-hour fast. Other priests might or might not depending on whether they’ve been given this by the bishop, or even delegated from the pastor.
Can. 1245 Without prejudice to the right of diocesan bishops mentioned in can. 87, for a just cause and according to the prescripts of the diocesan bishop, a pastor can grant in individual cases a dispensation from the obligation of observing a feast day or a day of penance or can grant a commutation of the obligation into other pious works. A superior of a religious institute or society of apostolic life, if they are clerical and of pontifical right, can also do this in regard to his own subjects and others living in the house day and night.
Since the pastor can dispense from the “whole” of the Mass, he can also dispense from any “part of the whole.” The whole is the Mass itself, the part is the 1hour fast.
Moreover, many bishops give priests (even not pastors) the faculty to dispense from the 1hour fast.
As for the fast as it applies to priests, a priest is bound by the 1 hour fast for the first Mass of the day, after that first Mass, the priest is permitted to consume something, but not a full meal before the 2nd Mass or 3rd.
Canon 919 §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.
What you posted was correct, although it took me a while to understand the wording.
The word “General” in the GIRM simply means “universal,” not “vague” because it applies to the whole (Latin Rite, Ordinary Form) Church. Certain adaptations to the General Instruction can be made by the conference of bishops with the Holy See’s approval, but that’s beside the point here). Might they have called it the “universal instruction” or something else? Yes. The translators settled on the word “general”–don’t read too much into that. The Latin word is “generalis” so translating that into English makes perfect sense, and a different word would actually be less-correct, even if it might convey a clearer meaning in English.
The same word is used for the General Instruction on the calendar which is very specific.
