Father Knows Best—Episode 21: Order of the Anointing of the Sick and Their Pastoral Care, Part 1

Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick: Questions, Misunderstandings and Recent Changes

Tune in so we may discover, learn, and engage our hearts, souls, and minds and become illuminated, informed, and inspired. Send in your questions to Fr. Mark via e-mail at fatherknowsbestshow@yahoo.com.  The program is sponsored by St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, NE. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Father Mark Stoll, Priest of the Diocese of Sioux City, with you today. And joining me, of course, is Tim Sudin, Executive Director for the Sioux Land Catholic Radio, to visit with me about some of the questions that I received from your listeners. We're gonna do a little something different this evening, right, Tim? Oh, we are gonna do something different.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Honestly, Father, you and I have talked about this for probably three or four weeks, and this program is the one I've been looking forward to for many weeks. So let's get started with this because I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Alrighty. Of course, before we get started, mention Anne is here, of course, at the control board helping us to make us sound good. But for this episode, we're gonna address some of the general questions about the sacrament anointing of the sick. Again, it's questions that many priests receive, and again, there's some misunderstanding of the sacrament, including some changes that just recently occurred with the with the reissuing or the retranslation of the Order of Anointing of the Sick and their pastoral care. Again, that was just recently issued in the United States and it's mandatory since of Easter Sunday of 2026. So, Tim, you may remember back in episode two we talked about uh a question about words changing in the celebration of adoration benediction, and we talked about why those words changed. And so we're gonna talk about briefly the same process occurred here for this newly revised, retranslated Anointing of the Sick and their pastoral care book. And that's of course due to a document known as Liturgicum Authenticum. Again, published in 2001, you may remember. Again, who published that? That was the Congregation of Divine Worship and Divine Sacraments. And at that time, of course, remember Pope John Paul II was Pope at the time. He approved it and he authorized this publication. And again, just to refresh this document, emphasize that all translations of documents of liturgical tests, texts, must be exact in wording and free from all ideological influence, is not to be a creative innovation and is to render the original text in Latin, that is, from Latin, faithfully and accurately into the vernacular language and without paraphrasing or any glosses. And so, shortly after 2001, after that document was issued, the United States Catholics conference the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops began to work to retranslate all the rites that we used here in the Church of the United States of America. Again, recall the last translations were done in the early 1970s, you know, shortly after Vatican II, you know, five years or so after. And of course, we've had some revisions and some additions since the 1970s. But so just a refresher again, as a result of these three translations, these re-translations have been completed for the Roman Missal, for the Order of the Mass at the New Over in 2011, the Order of Confirmation in 2016, Order of Matrimony in 2016, the Order of Holy Orders 2018, the Order of Baptism in 2020, Order for Reconciliation 2023, the Order of Christianities of Adults in 2024, the order for Eucharist outside of Mass, 2024, and finally the order of anointing of the sick and their pastor care being issued here just recently in early 2026. But again, we it takes a while for these translations to be approved, and so the United States bishops completed their revision process in 2022, and then it was approved by the Vatican 2024, and then issued here in 2026. Now the new ritual book is a retranslation of the 1972 Latin text that was issued after Vatican II. Again, it's a book that's used by the priest. Again, as I just said, it was published here early 2026, supposed to be, could be first used on February 11th, 2026, and now is required as of Easter Sunday, April 5th of 2026. And so for the most part, I just want to assure you that most people, the average person, is not going to see any changes because there's no changes to the words of anointing of the sick. There's no change in the wording of the translation of the apostolic blessing. Other parts have not changed. However, what has changed will be mostly for the priests who administer the sacrament of the sick. And so just want to give you a little heads up. Some priests, you know, it may take a little while for them to be accustomed to the new ritual book. It has changed a little bit what we had in 1983. They may be a little disorientated because the layout of the book and some of the options have changed. There are some changes that the priests would need to adjust to. But again, many lay faithful won't be aware of. But the revised and retranslated English Order of writing the sick and the Pastor Care, again, first introduced in 72 in Latin by the Vatican II's called to render more clear and more help to be provide more meaning to the sacrament according to the understanding of the Church and even instructions of the Council of Trent. The first provisional English translation in the United States was done in 1973, and that was used until 1983 when a second English translation was done. And this current translation that we just introduced is replacing that 1983 version. And so in the 1983 version, that version, that text did not entirely match the Vatican's ritual book of 1973, of 72, and because that 73 book and the 83 book of the United States included some additional rites to cover some special circumstances, such as what do you do when you have to anoint someone in the hospital. Again, going back to Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul II, his instructions in 2001 call for that authentic translation of the approved Latin text. This becomes a third translation, again, as I said earlier, completed by the bishops in 2022, approved by Vatican 2024. And now this, what we have in front of us, is a more authentic translation in accord with the 1972 Latin text approved after Vatican II. So, as with the revision and translation of all the other rites, we now have a wonderful opportunity to review what the sacrament of the anointing of the sick is all about. And first of all, we point out oftentimes this sacrament for many people has been referred to as the last rites. And so that is really not entirely exactly correct to speak about the sacrament. And we're going to talk about that, what that means, why it's not really to talk about the sacrament of anointing of the sick as the last rites. So let's briefly just give a little oversight what's what we find in the in the book. The revised and retranslated English, Order of Anointing of the Sick and the Pastoral Care. Again, offers insights to who this sacrament is for and when it is to be administered. And so we'll find in this book rites for the visitation and communion of the sick by the pastor, the anointing of the sick, by addicum, the uh rites for a sick person who is imminent death or imminent in danger of death. There's a rite for confirmation of a person who is in danger of death. There is, of course, prayers for the accommodation of the dying. There's various texts that can be used, options, you know, readings and prayers and things, things like that that can be used at various times. They also provide it what called model rites for visitation of the sick for an adult or child. There is a shorter order of adult initiation to be used in near danger of death or at the point of death. There's prayers for after death, and there's also what we call emergency rite of penance, viadicum, and anointing. And we're going to talk about them more in detail in a little bit. But let's briefly talk about these rites, when they are to be used, because again, I'll be completely honest, many of us priests are called too late in the person's life for the person to receive the benefits of these rites. And I just use my own example. I have been called many times by the family, for example, shortly before or even after the death of someone, and by that time it's basically it's too late to use some of these beautiful rites that we have the church has given us. And so when these rites are to be used, is really as soon as the person becomes seriously ill. And that's a very key point there. And again, this comes even from the Council of Trent. The sacrament that we are going to be talking about and the rituals we'll be talking about are for those who, when they become seriously ill. It was at the Council of Trent that was emphasized that anointing sick is for those who are seriously ill. Again, re-emphasized at Vatican II. However, over the years, even since Council of Trent, it seems that people and even priests, I should confess, we have used and have used the sacrament of anointing sick for people who are not seriously ill, or for those who are dying, and they can miss all the other benefits of the various rites that we can offer in this time of their life. And some of those rites include the sacrament salation, the apostolic pardon, holy communion, viaticum, other prayers, and even as the Vatican II points out, in this time when someone is seriously ill, it's time for us to uh review and appreciate the significance of human sickness in the mystery, in the in the in the mystery of salvation. And so this these rituals that are part of the order of anointing sick and the pastor care is really about allowing the church through the ministry of the priest to walk with the sick person through the illness and through their dying process.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

From what you're saying, I think the most important piece of this as Catholics misunderstand is the timing of these sacraments.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Exactly. And we'll be talking about that as we talk about each of those sacraments and when they are to be administered. So if you're just tuning in, you are listening to Father Knows Best here on Sue Land Catholic Radio as I answer your questions about faith, the Catholic Church. I'm Father Mark Stowe, along with Tim Sudin. As we are addressing this evening, a little bit different format this evening, we're addressing some general questions about the sacrament anointing of the sick that you know many priests uh you know are called to offer. And again, we're addressing some of the misunderstandings of the sacrament, including some of the changes that have recently occurred with the retranslation of the order of the sick and their pastor care that was recently issued for the United States, and it was mandatory as of Easter Sunday, 2026. So let's talk about the very first rite that the priest is given an option to. And this is, I think, very significant. This is kind of an eye-opening, too, I think, for some priests, because it is an important thing that we do. It's called the Visitation and Communion of the Sick, and it's an emphasis towards the pastor of the parish. The pastor of the parish, you know, or the priests of the parish are encouraged to visit the sick of the parish so that they may offer the words of faith and instruct them in the significance of the human sickness and the mystery of salvation. And in various times, I'm going to be quoting some various paragraphs, comes right out of the ritual book, such as, again, that's the role of the priest. Again, to visit the sick people and offer words of faith and instruct them on the significance of human sickness and the mystery of salvation. And so during this visit, again, the pastors basically give the sick person the opportunity to celebrate the sacrifice salation before they share the gospel, pray the Lord's Prayer, offer Holy Communion, and the final blessing. And this is really a wonderful time for the pastor to get to know the people of his parish who are either seriously ill or maybe not seriously ill, but they're homebound. Or maybe they're in the hospital or they're in the care facility. And so this gives the opportunity for the priest, representing Christ, of course, in the church, then to walk with the sick person. There is, of course, a shorter rite for Holy Communion for the sick when there might be several more sick people in the same facility, maybe different rooms, such as the nursing home or hospital. But yet that priest is to offer the opportunity for each person to confess their sins, absolve them at an appropriate time before offering Holy Communion. Of course, we know that many parishes have ex-rayed minister holy communion, ministers and even deacons who go visit the sick on a regular basis, maybe even weekly. However, this ritual encourages the priests and pastors of the parish to make regular visits too, maybe perhaps maybe once a month. And not just necessarily when they're called by the sick person. They may be regularly scheduled this. But again, important of this visit is that opportunity to offer the reseculation, which an extra minister holy communion or deacon cannot do. And so it's a wonderful time again for the pastor to visit with his people and where they're at in their homes. Again, like what Jesus would do, going out to the sick. The second rite of the book is what we call the order of anointing of the sick. Now, this is the rite that most people are familiar with, but I would say, even some priests, we seem to misunderstand this right. And let me explain. This is the rite that is often called the last rites. There are many times I've gotten the call from someone, family member, or even from a nursing home, and says, This person needs the last rites. And what they're calling is, is to for us to come to anoint the person. And many times, several times, oftentimes, or whatever it might be, we find a person that has been called that is either not seriously ill or is actually near death. And again, those two times not seriously ill or near death, this is really not the opportunity uh the time to do anointing the sick. It's there's other opportunities there. And so this right, again, for anointing of the sick, is meant for those who are seriously ill. And seriously ill, again, can be kind of, you know, how do we define that? Again, it's there is uh we may say a danger for death of the person, but it may not be imminent, but it may be possible because of the seriousness of the illness or injury. And maybe they just pay diagnosed with cancer, which sometimes can be a death sentence, a traumatic injury, or maybe even a serious mental illness, or even the age of the person as we get older. Again, we get we're drawn closer and closer to that point of death. So this right is again for those who are seriously ill. Hopefully, I would say this is not the first time when a priest is called, that this is not the first time the priest has met the person. Um the person, you know, maybe a you know pastor, and then hopefully the pastor is already a visiting person with community of the sick. But of course, this also may be the first time, and it does happen. This is the first time we've met the person because they've just had a serious accident, car accident, for example, or maybe an unexpected onset of a serious illness. And so, when called, it is up to the priest to basically inquire of the condition of the person to be anointed. It is up to the priest to then to prepare and assess how seriously ill the person is and whether anointing is necessary if other rites are necessary, and even to explain the significance of the sacrament, what he's gonna do. Again, this will be an explanation to the sick person and an explanation to the family, because many times when we're called, the family expects us to pull out the ohyol and anoint the person. And that may not be necessary at that point or maybe too late, but let me explain. If anointing is necessary, again, what normally we would see is that the person would be blessed with the sprinkling of holy water. Again, it reminds us of our baptism. There'd be an opportunity offered for the sacrifice of recaliation. If the person doesn't want to do that, then we move into what we call the penitentiary, which we have at Mass. For example, the Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. The gospel is shared. There is a litany prayer that is offered, and then the person is anointed on the forehead and on the palms of their hands, or maybe even other parts of the body, depends on, you know, the condition of the state of the person, and that they're anointed then with the oil of the sick. That oil of the sick, of course, is what is blessed at the chrism mass by the bishop each year around Holy Week, right before Holy Thursday. After the anointing, and there's the Lord's Prayer. We can then also offer Holy Communion to the person, and then the final blessing is given. This ritual for the anointing of the sick can be either done within Mass or outside of Mass. And I want to point out, sometimes we miss this, even as priests. I confess, it's like, boy, this is really interesting how this writer's put together. These rites of the sacrament of anointing of the sick and the other uh rites that we use follow the order of baptism, confirmation, eucharist, the order of initiation. And so, the one the obviously the person's already been baptized, and so what represents baptism? Reconciliation. It's called the second baptism. You know, how do we re-fix up the wounds that we've caused since our baptism? The stains, it's reconciliation. And so we are renewed in our baptism through reconciliation. Then comes anointing of the sick, the anointing with the holy oil. Anointings should remind us of confirmation. Again, hopefully the person has been confirmed. If the person has been confirmed, we'll talk about that later. And then, of course, the next sacrament that we should receive in our initiation is the Eucharist, is Holy Communion. And so, of course, the person is receives Holy Communion. So, again, it follows the sacraments of initiation, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, even in the rite of anointing the sick. So, again, wonderful way to remind ourselves of those three sacraments.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

During all these times, you've talked about the description seriously ill. Seriously ill. Who makes that determination? In conversation with the patient, do you talk to the doctors? To what how do you define seriously ill?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Exactly. So again, when I get a call, I'm gonna ask, you know, what kind of condition is the person, or if if I'm when I arrive, then I'm gonna make another assessment too. But usually the first time I'm first thing I'm gonna ask is, is the paper person is the person able to receive holy communion? Is the person even if it's a small piece of the host. Right. If they say no, uh then I may ask Lowell like so you know what's the reason for that? But if if they say no, that's okay. We've already moved past able to receive holy communion. And that's when I say it's already too late. Okay. Because the person's unconscious, can't swallow, right, you know, so it's it's too late. That's why we hope hopefully we've already started that community of the sick earlier. Right. You know, if if possible. Again, if the person has been going out here for years and can't get the mass, okay, it's time for us to go visit the person in the home and bring them Holy Communion before they get to the point where they're unable to receive Holy Communion.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

That is why I think those parish visits, whether it's the pastor or a deacon or even a member of the parish, are so critical because they can exactly give input as to how the the condition that the patient is doing.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

And we've had that happen with an ex-minute holy communion goes to someone's home and says, Okay, uh, I just visited uh Howard and he's starting to decline. And so that'd be an uh indication, priest, I need to go right now and visit him. Right, see where he's at. Maybe he's gone into a decline. Now it's time for anointing the sick. Right. Um, and so yeah, so don't wait until the person, you know, has gone beyond seriously ill to the dying process. And we're gonna talk about that as we move to the additional rites, but you know, it's so important again to offer that those that visit of the priest, you know, especially when they become seriously ill. Right. Um, again, it could be for many different reasons. Again, we're not when we talk about seriously ill, we're not talking about you know having a cold or the flu unless, you know, for example, someone is elderly and that condition, you know, could be life-threatening. Right. That's what we're really talking about. Seriously illness is when it's life-threatening. Okay. Um, so um it you know, even for surgery, most surgeries, you know, for example, I'm I'm gonna have my you know a kidney removed or a pendix removed, that's not life-threatening. Right. Now, maybe the older they get that it will be a life-threatening surgery. Right. And so again, that's the things that we want to assess. So, yes, we're gonna talk to the family, right? We're gonna talk to the doctors or the nurses. If they're in the ER, you know, uh, they're probably pretty serious. Right. If they're in the um IC unit, they're probably pretty serious. Right. If they're in a common, you know, bed, you know, in the hospital, maybe not as serious, you know. So again, there's a lot of things that have to go into the assessment, you know, what's the condition? So, you know, I'm gonna talk to the nurses, the doctor, if possible, and the family members to make the assessment. The most difficult thing is that, and I completely understand this, families are gonna look at their loved one and say, My father is seriously ill. And I look at him and I say, No, I don't think so. And so that how do I explain to them? It's like, no, this is not the appropriate time, because again, it is so ingrained in people, I believe, and in priests, I believe, that it's like as soon as a person gets sick, it's time to anoint them. And it may not be. No. But communion again, and we're gonna talk about that. The importance of communion, again, and uh gives you a little bit of a uh kind of a preview of what's coming up. Right. You know, communion is the last rite. It is. We want to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, in the body of Christ, if possibly even the blood of Christ, especially the body of Christ, as that last sacrament, as that last act that we receive Christ, so we can then be with Him, He with us as we go on to our next life. So again, um, there's a lot of assessment that has to go on. Again, the sometimes we as priests we have to make that assessment very quickly. You know, what's the Person can what's the person's condition? But yeah, we need to ask some questions. And so again, people should not be offended. When the priest says, you know, what is the person's condition? Can they receive holy communion? Right. Are they alert? Are they conscious? You know, what's what what's their status? What's their diagnosis?

SPEAKER_01 22:16

So you're saying that there's a lot of sources of input.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

There's lots of sources of input.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Now, obviously, as a person who's already seen his parents pass away, sometimes they're stonewalled in their thoughts. He's not gonna die. I know he's gonna st he's been here before. Yes. He's not gonna go away. He's he's he's come back from this before. How do you deal with that when that's addressed as a as a purse?

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Yeah, again, but that's again, that's again, it's up to the priest, and again, he may have to say, okay, I'm gonna anoint her. You know, sometimes we don't know either. I mean, once in while we have people go into surgery, and it's like this is not life-threatening, and then a week later they're dead. So uh, you know, you know, it's basically we've got to use our best judgment. And that's what you said, we pray that we made the right judgment. Judgment in this case is, you know, it's like what's the Holy Spirit leading us to do? What what's important? And so this is why this ritual book, and we'll talk more about that in the next episode. But it's it's there's so many options, but you know, it really it's the priest that has to make that judgment. And the people need to be reassured that we are gonna give the best pastoral care that we can give at that point as we judge worthy. And uh, so we're gonna do the best we can. And I think the point that we need to make before we conclude this episode is that people look at that holy oil, the oil of the sick, oil of the firm, as kind of like a magic potion. It's not, it's not, it's not a magic potion, it's not a magic oil. Again, it's only being used on people that we assess as being seriously ill or even you know coming close to death, you know, kind of point we're talking more about the the stages of death. But um again, we you know don't see that oil as magic. It's it's it's a sacramental, it's yes, blessed by the bishop, but it's there to help the sick person for a number of reasons. You know, maybe person possibly even cure them of their illness, which does happen sometimes, or you know, help them with their spiritual life, cure them, uh, relieve them of some spiritual trauma. But again, that holy oil, when someone's seriously ill, and they do have a possibility of recovering, yes, maybe danger of death is coming, but they have a possibility of recovering, it's an opportunity for them to receive the assurance of Christ that He's there to be with them and help them.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I just think it's really important for everyone to recognize the priest is making his best determination. Exactly. And there's nothing personal or there's nothing negative about it. But sometimes maybe anointing of the sick is not the proper time because they need to be farther towards the illness, towards death. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

And we have to move to the next rite, which we'll talk about next week, which is about Vatican. Again, that's a very important right. So again, we are coming to the end of tonight, and we have a lot of materials to cover because it's a it's a very interesting sacrament that we offer to our sick our people, seriously ill people, because of how important you know it is for us to walk with them. So again, we're gonna come back, can we, next week? Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

So stay tuned. We need to discuss this again next week because we're all gonna deal with this at some point in our life. Right. Where our parents are gonna or our relative are gonna become ill. And I think it's important to know these because as you've discussed, there's some misunderstandings related to this within the Catholic religion.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

And even for our own selves, you know, when we need to ask for this, because sometimes our families may be a little reluctant or afraid to ask, but you know, call the priest and let him decide and he'll be there. Yep. So as we wrap up these this session this evening about the anointing of the sick, we extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in and sharing your thought-provoking questions. Your curiosity and engagement makes the show possible, and we are always inspired by the incredible range of topics you bring to the table. We hope that you found the answers to this session informative and enlightening, and we hope you've carried some new insights about the sacrament as you go about your week. Again, if you're you know we haven't addressed a question that you've sent to us, again you may hear it next week or the following week. If you missed this episode or would like to relisten to this or other episodes, please visit our website at SoulCatholic Radio.com and visit the programs drop menu and click local programs to find this episode, other episodes of Father Knows Best and other local programs. If you have any questions, please send your questions to us at Father Knows Best Show at Yahoo.com or email them to or mail them to, excuse me, Father Knows Best, Sioux Land Catholic Radio, 701 and Fift West Fifth Street, Sioux City, Iowa, 51103. And thank you to our sponsor, St. Augustine Indian Mission Winnebago, for sponsoring the show tonight. Please join us again next week, next Wednesday at 9 p.m. for another round of questions and answers. Until then, stay curious, stay faithful, keep your light shining, and keep your questions coming. For now, I'm Father Mark Stowe, your host, signing off, and wishing a great week ahead. May Mighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.