Vatican website translation:<\/p>\n
73. “Extreme unction,” which may also and more fittingly be called “anointing of the sick,” is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived.<\/p>\n
Latin text:<\/strong><\/p>\n 73. “Extrema Unctio”, quae etiam et melius “Unctio infirmorum” vocari potest, non est Sacramentum eorum tantum qui in extremo vitae discrimine versantur. Proinde tempus opportunum eam recipiendi iam certe habetur cum fidelis incipit esse in periculo mortis propter infirmitatem vel senium.<\/strong><\/p>\n Slavishly literal translation:<\/p>\n 73. \u201cThe Last Anointing,\u201d which could also and better be called \u201cAnointing of the Sick,\u201d is not a Sacrament only for those who are turned toward the final stage of life. Indeed the opportune time for receiving it has certainly been met when [one of the] faithful begins to be in danger of death on account of infirmity or old age.<\/p>\n Just as historical studies uncovered a variety of celebrational structures and rituals to celebrate the sacrament of penance\/reconciliation, so they brought to light changes in the practice and theology of the sacrament of the sick. The term \u201cExtreme Unction\u201d applied to this sacrament suggests that it is primarily a sacrament for the dying; indeed some medieval theologians suggested that the proper candidate for the sacrament should be one in final agony, preferably insensate, so that the primary effect of the sacrament would be to ensure that the dying person would enter heaven with minimal experience of purgatory. The Council Fathers sought to shift the focus of this sacrament from ministry to the dying (since viaticum is more properly considered the sacrament of the dying) to ministry to the ill, signaled by a change in its title: \u201cthe Anointing of the Sick.\u201d They further stated that the proper candidate for the sacrament would be a baptized person who was seriously ill or so old that death could be foreseen as a not unlikely result of the process that the person was experiencing.<\/p>\n Pray Tell readers may wish to discuss: 1) how effectively this shift in terminology has taken root among the faithful; 2) how widespread among the faithful is the sense that sacramental anointing is intended for the seriously ill and not (only) for the dying; 3) what pastoral wisdom has accumulated about the proper candidates for the sacrament since the Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vatican website translation: 73. “Extreme unction,” which may also and more fittingly be called “anointing of the sick,” is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3814,31,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium","category-sacramental-theology","category-vatican-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n