Question Three. Concerning the Form of Extreme Unction.

436. The Form of Extreme Unction is this: Through this holy anointing and his most loving mercy may the Lord forgive thee whatever thou hast sinned through sight (hearing, smell, taste and speech, touch, walking). It is a prayer signifying the effect of the sacrament.

In this form these things are essential: through this anointing may the Lord forgive thee whatever thou hast sinned; for in these all things are had which must be expressed through the form of this sacrament: a. the sacramental action: anointing; b. the proper effect of this sacrament: may he forgive, etc.; c. the deprecatory form, for it is required for the essence of this sacrament that the form in some way, at least formally, be deprecatory: the prayer shall save the sick man.

The word holy and those other words, through his most loving mercy, do not pertain to the essence. Indeed it is not necessary that the senses be named either specifically or in general, since express mention of them is lacking in many forms, and especially in the Greek form and in the form recently approved by the holy see.¹

¹ Cf. Chr. Pesch VII, n. 531 ss.

437. Concerning the Form To Be Used in a Case of Necessity. 1. In a case of necessity, where on account of danger of delay extreme unction must be administered as quickly as possible, the dying man is to be anointed on the forehead with this form used: Through this holy anointing may the Lord forgive thee whatever thou hast sinned. Amen.

The holy see approved this form as sufficient in a case of necessity (n. 434). By this declaration it is clear: a. that for the value of extreme unction it is not required that the senses be named either in general or individually; b. that one anointing on the forehead, or on some sense, of the sick man suffices for the value of extreme unction, and it is not necessary that the individual senses be named either explicitly or implicitly, or that the individual senses be anointed; for by one anointing the sick man is judged to have been anointed.

2. If the sacrament in danger of death has been conferred by one anointing, afterward when the danger has ceased the individual anointings are to be supplied absolutely, not because the value of the sacrament is doubtful, but for the greater spiritual utility of the sick man.¹

a. The individual anointings are to be supplied not from necessity of the sacrament, but from precept of the Church; for since the cited decrees and the Code of Canon Law say that one anointing on the forehead of the sick man suffices, certainly for producing the essential effect of the sacrament, there can be no doubt concerning its validity.

b. The anointings are to be supplied not conditionally but absolutely, because they ought to exercise their force not in the case in which the first anointing perhaps was invalid, but in every case, even if the first anointing was valid and efficacious. But the effect which the individual anointings produce is gathered from those things which were said above (n. 431).

¹ Holy Office, March 9, 1917. Cn. 947, 1.

438. Concerning the Rite of Extreme Unction. a. If extreme unction is to be administered to several persons at the same time, the prayers which are not joined with actions are to be said only once in the plural, if the change can conveniently be made; but the actions with the prayers joined to them are to be repeated over each one. Therefore if extreme unction is conferred on several persons, the imposition of the hand with the prayer: Let it be extinguished, and then the anointings with their forms, are to be repeated over each one; but the other prayers can be said only once over all in the plural.

b. If a priest fails during the anointings, another ought not to repeat the anointings already made, unless a notable time, that is, a quarter of an hour, has already passed; but it suffices that he add those which are still lacking. Indeed, the administration of this sacrament would not be invalid, but outside a case of necessity in the Latin Church gravely illicit, if it were done by several priests at the same time in such a way that one anoints one part of the body, another another part, pronouncing the form appropriate to that anointing.