by Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., LL.D., L.H.D.

Difficulties About Extreme Unction

Question A: If a priest is anointing a sick person with the intention of giving all the anointing, but finds, after anointing the hands, that for some good reason he cannot anoint the feet, is there any reason for doubting the validity of the sacrament?

Answer A: These questions center about the difficult problem as to just when, in the administration of Extreme Unction, the essence of the sacrament is given. Of course, Extreme Unction can be given with a single anointing on any sense, at least if a general form is used, such as is the prescribed forma brevior (Canon 947.1). But from this it does not follow necessarily that in the ordinary conferring of this sacrament it is essentially completed with the first anointing– the anointing of the eyes with a prayer for the remission of sins committed by the sense of sight. In fact, it seems quite probably that it is only after the fifth anointing that the essential sacramental grace is given. For it is only then that the anointing prayers prescribed by the ritual have covered all the types of sins that the person could have committed, so that it can be said that the anointing of his body has been essentially completed. The anointing of the feet adds only to the integrity of the sacrament, as is evident from the facility with which the Church dispenses from this anointing (Canon 947, 3), and also from the fact that any sins committed per gressum have already been included in some manner in one of the preceding anointing. Accordingly, the priest who would start with the intention of giving all six anointing, but would decide to omit the sixth only after giving the fifth need have no doubt about the validity of the sacrament, as long as his general intention is to anoint according to the mind of the Church (Kilker, Extreme Unction, St. Louis: Herder, 1927, pp. 45 f.). Nevertheless, as a general rule the priest should find out before beginning to anoint whether or not he can give all the prescribed six anointing.

Question B: Supposing in the same circumstances the priest discovered, after giving the first four anointing, that he could anoint neither the hands nor the feet: is there any reason for doubting the validity of the sacrament?

Answer B: According to the probable view just expounded, Extreme Unction is not essentially administered until the hands have been anointed. From this it would follow that the priest who would discover in the course of the anointing that he could not anoint the hands would run the risk of not giving the sacrament if he would do nothing to supply the defect. Accordingly, he would be bound to take measures to make certain the administration of the sacrament. The most practical course would be to add an anointing on the forehead, with the general form, and with the intention of giving the sacrament on condition that it has not already been conferred. In the event that the priest discovers beforehand that he cannot give one or more of the first five anointing on the proper members (at least one of each pair) or on a part of the body sufficiently proximate (Rit. Rom., De Extrema Unctione, Cap. 1, n, 19), it would be best to give the forehead anointing absolutely with a general form, and then to add whatever particular anointings are possible.