Sidebar: History of Anointing

For centuries, the Anointing of the Sick was considered a sacrament only for those near death. Known as "Extreme Unction" or the "Last Rites," it was feared by many people because it was postponed until the last few moments of life, according to Rev. Thomas Richstatter, OFM, author of "The Sacraments: How Catholics Pray."

Unlike today, when the sacrament is usually celebrated in community, "often, no one was present [for Extreme Unction] but the dying person and the priest," Father Richstatter writes. "This was a situation which needed to be corrected."

The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s reformed the sacrament and refuted the notion that it was only for people in extremis. Now, it can be celebrated in church during Sunday Mass, in the home of a sick person or in the hospital.

"The sacrament is not given indiscriminately, yet the Church wishes to avoid restrictions that would deny anointing to those for whom it was intended," he writes. "The sacrament is most fruitful when one is not too sick to participate in the prayers and ritual actions."

A person having surgery for a serious illness or disability, an elderly person, someone with emotional or mental problems, or people suffering from alcoholism or other addictions are among those eligible to be anointed.

A priest uses oil that already has been blessed by the bishop, which shows the concern of the bishop and diocese for the sick. Oil was used as medicine in Jesus' time; when He commissioned the Twelve Apostles and gave them authority over unclean spirits, they anointed the sick with oil and cured them, Father Richstatter points out.

People experience healing through Anointing of the Sick in different ways. "It is not always physical healing, the healing of the medical profession," he writes. "The sacrament is not a substitute for the work of doctors and nurses, drugs and hospitals. God's healing power works through the hands and intelligence of medical professionals, and we should pray that God guide these professionals also." (PQ)

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