Q. My husband has often asked me what the fasting rule is for Communion. To play it safe, we always aim to fast one hour from the time of the scheduled Mass. We often sip water before entering the church and he asks every time: “This is only water, right?” I finally checked the Catechism of the Catholic Church and did not find the answer, except to follow the fasting in your area. We are told one hour before Communion. Yet if you leave the house, finishing food, coffee, etc., 15 minutes before Mass begins and Mass is only about 30 minutes, that rule would not apply. Please advise. — Name Withheld, Ohio
A. Canon 919 of the Code of Canon Law says that “one who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion.” The canon also says that “those who are advanced in age or who suffer from any infirmity, as well as those who take care of them, can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have taken something during the previous hour.”
Note that the fast is one hour before Communion, not one hour before Mass begins, but since the canon says “at least” one hour, it would be good to fast from the beginning of Mass, or even longer, to show one’s appreciation for the privilege of receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
Older readers can recall when the fast was from midnight the night before Sunday Mass. This was reduced to a three-hour fast in 1957 and to a one-hour fast in 1964. Permission to take water or medicine anytime before reception of Holy Communion was granted in 1953. The medicine may be in solid or liquid form, and it need not be prescribed by a physician.
Q. Why doesn’t the Church in America pray in a more purposeful and public way for persecuted Christians all over the world (e.g., Nigeria, Sudan, Red China, North Korea, Nicaragua)? Think of the good it would do if every U.S. bishop would direct all the parishes in his diocese to include such petitions in the Prayer of the Faithful at every weekend Mass. — M.S., Massachusetts
A. We don’t know why, just as we never understood why there weren’t prayers at every Mass for an end to the abortion holocaust, which has ramped up now despite the overturn of Roe v. Wade due to the huge increase in chemical abortions.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (n. 70) suggests that the intentions offered at Mass should usually be “a) for the needs of the Church; b) for public authorities and the salvation of the whole world; c) for those burdened by any kind of difficulty; d) for the local community.”
Certainly, the terrible persecution of fellow Catholics throughout the world ought to be given priority. Write to your bishop or at least speak to your pastor about this matter. And keep a special place in your individual prayers for our beleaguered brothers and sisters.
Q. Over 100 years ago, Our Lady of Fatima requested that the pope consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart to bring about peace in the world. She said that if her request was not honored, Russia would spread her errors across the world and whole nations would be destroyed.
To date, no pope has honored her request. In truth, only Pope Leo XIV himself has the power to end all wars and usher in a period of peace. We must all pray that he opens his eyes in time and does the right thing. — E.M.H., California
A. We don’t think that the power to end all wars rests in the hands of Pope Leo. Only God can make that happen.
As for whether the consecration of Russia has been properly done, we have written about that many times over the years and think that what Pope St. John Paul II did in 1984 came pretty close. But we have also pointed out that the Blessed Virgin never promised that world peace would immediately follow the consecration of Russia. All she said was that world peace would come about at some time in the future.
Here are her words on July 13, 1917: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.” There is no indication of when that period of peace will come about.
But the consecration of Russia was not the only condition for world peace. Our Lady also mentioned the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays, saying that “if my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.”
While many good people have for years taken part in the First Saturday devotions, and continue to do so today, we believe that many more will have to do so in order to bring about the period of peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima.
Q. The Church condemns capitalism and the Church condemns socialism. So what kind of economic system are we supposed to have? — G.P., Florida
A. An economic system that provides “for the needs of human beings” and that “is ordered first of all to the service of persons, of the whole man, and of the entire human community. Economic activity, conducted according to its own proper methods, is to be exercised within the limits of the moral order, in keeping with social justice so as to correspond to God’s plan for man” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 2426).
The Church does not reject capitalism as an economic system that produces and distributes wealth based on private ownership by individuals or groups of individuals, but only an unbridled capitalism that “makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity” (CCC, n. 2424). She does, however, reject socialism because it “subordinates the basic rights of individuals and of groups to the collective organization of production” (ibid.).
In summary, the Catechism says:
“The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with ‘communism’ or ‘socialism.’ She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of ‘capitalism,’ individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for ‘there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market.’ Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with the just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended” (n. 2425).
What is needed, said Pope Benedict in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate (“Charity in Truth”), “is a market that permits the free operation in conditions of equal opportunity of enterprises in pursuit of different institutional ends. Alongside profit-oriented private enterprise and the various types of public enterprise, there must be room for commercial entities based on mutualist principles and pursuing social ends to take root and express themselves. It is from their reciprocal encounter in the marketplace that one may expect hybrid forms of commercial behavior to emerge and hence an attentiveness to ways of civilizing the economy. Charity in truth, in this case, requires that shape and structure be given to those types of economic initiative which, without rejecting profit, aim at a higher goal than the mere logic of the exchange of equivalents, of profit as an end in itself” (n. 38).
