Question Two. Concerning the Matter of Extreme Unction.

432. The Valid Remote Matter of extreme unction is oil consecrated by the bishop with a special blessing.

1. Oil by necessity of the sacrament must be from olives; for both by common usage and by the sense of the Church, by the name of oil nothing else is understood except oil of olives. Moreover in the decree of Eugene IV for the Armenians it is expressly said that the matter of this sacrament is olive oil.¹

2. The oil must necessarily be blessed by a bishop. Therefore an anointing conferred with oil blessed by a simple priest without special permission of the holy see, and still more with oil not blessed at all, is of no value.

a. Both the words of Eugene IV and the words of the Council of Trent, by which it is expressly affirmed that the matter is oil blessed by a bishop, exclude every doubt in this question. The Council of Trent moreover adds that the Church learned from apostolic tradition the matter of this sacrament, namely oil blessed by a bishop,² by which words it signifies that this matter was determined by Christ himself. Therefore the Church declared the contrary opinion rash and proximate to error,³ and never permitted, not even in a case of extreme necessity, that, oil blessed by a bishop being lacking, the sacrament of extreme unction be administered with oil blessed by a simple priest who had not been delegated for this.

b. Nevertheless oil blessed by a simple priest from a special delegation of the supreme pontiff can be used; just as in the Greek Church oil blessed by a presbyter is generally used, with permission of the Roman pontiff. The blessing of a bishop is ordinary; that of a delegated priest is extraordinary.⁴

3. In order that the oil certainly be valid matter of this sacrament, it must be blessed by a special blessing, that is, in order to extreme unction; for by this special blessing the matter of this sacrament is constituted. But other oil blessed by a bishop constitutes probably only valid matter.

That by force of precept it must be blessed by a special blessing is clear from the new Code, which in canon 945 cited above says that oil must be blessed by the bishop for this, that is, in order to this sacrament. But the question whether this is required for the value of the sacrament is not solved by these words; therefore the opinion remains only probable that oil must be blessed by a special blessing for the value of the sacrament.

Hence in a case of necessity, oil of the sick being lacking, the sacrament is to be conferred conditionally with another oil blessed by a bishop; but afterward, if oil of the sick can be had, the sacrament is to be repeated conditionally. This must also be done if by error the priest used another oil.

¹ Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 700.

² Sess. 14, c. 1, De extr. unct.

³ Holy Office, January 13, 1611, under Paul V, and September 14, 1842, under Gregory XVI.

⁴ All these things are confirmed by Cn. 945: "The oil of olives to be used in the sacrament of extreme unction must be blessed for this by a bishop, or by a presbyter who has obtained the faculty of blessing it from the Apostolic See."

433. The Licit Remote Matter of this sacrament is oil blessed in the same year by the bishop of the diocese.

1. Blessed in the same year: for according to the Roman Ritual the oil must be renewed each year after the old has been burned, in a lamp burning before the most holy sacrament. This precept indeed seems to be grave. But if new blessed oil cannot be had, it is licit to use old oil.¹

If the oil seems not likely to suffice within the year and no other blessed oil can be had, according to the Ritual another unblessed oil can be mixed with it, but in a lesser quantity; indeed the mixing can be renewed more often, provided that the part of oil mixed in is always less than that part into which it is poured.²

2. By the bishop of the diocese, and when the see is vacant by another neighboring bishop, and indeed on Thursday in the Lord's Supper. Therefore to use oil, without necessity, which was not blessed by one's own ordinary is against the precept of the Church, which seems to some to be grave.³

¹ Cn. 734.

² Rituale rom., tit. 5, c. 1, n. 3; S. C. C., September 25, 1862. Cn. 734, 2.

³ Holy Office, September 14, 1842; January 10, 1850. Cn. 734, 1.

434. The Proximate Matter is the anointing of the sick man with oil blessed by the bishop, as the Apostle has it: anointing him with oil.

The Apostle indeed does not determine the parts of the body which are to be anointed, nor had the Church up to this point defined anything on this matter; but recently, both from the declaration of the holy see¹ and especially from the new Code, it is clear how many anointings are required for the value of the sacrament.²

1. For the value of the sacrament, one anointing on the forehead of the sick man certainly suffices.

It will help to know the arguments of the theologians who tried to demonstrate that one anointing suffices, because they shed much light on the whole question: a. For the essence of this sacrament an anointing of the sick man is required, just as for the essence of baptism a washing of the body is required. But for the value of baptism one washing suffices; therefore by equal reason for the value of extreme unction one anointing suffices. b. That several parts of the body are to be anointed is gathered from the precept of the Church, not from the institution of the sacrament, because sometimes more and sometimes fewer parts, and not always the same parts, are prescribed to be anointed.³ To the argument of those denying it: Anointing signifies the perfect spiritual healing of man; but it does not signify this unless all five senses are anointed, since they are so many origins and roots of sins. To this argument they respond: Since the head is the seat of all faculties, and from the head all the senses, even internal senses, flow, by the anointing of the head or forehead perfect spiritual healing is suitably, not to say more suitably, signified.

2. By precept of the Church five parts of the body must be anointed: the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and hands.

Concerning the anointing of the loins, although the most recent edition of the Ritual says: the anointing of the loins in women is always omitted for the sake of modesty,⁴ nevertheless the new Code simply decrees: the anointing of the loins is always omitted.⁵ The anointing of the feet can be omitted for any reasonable cause.⁶

Therefore, that the sacrament be administered licitly, the anointing at least of the five senses is necessarily required; namely, the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and hands are to be anointed. Nevertheless, in a case of necessity, the sacrament can and must be administered with one anointing on some sense, or better on the head, from which the nerves of all the senses descend, and indeed absolutely, because its value is already established.

¹ Holy Office, April 26, 1906; March 9, 1917.

² Cn. 947, 1: In a case of necessity one anointing in one sense, or more correctly on the forehead, suffices.

³ In the Greek Church anciently three parts of the body were anointed: the forehead, chin, and both cheeks; now they anoint the forehead, chin, both cheeks, breast, hands, and feet.

⁴ Tit. V, c. 1, n. 15.

⁵ Cn. 947, 1.

⁶ Cn. 947, 3.

435. How the Anointings Are To Be Made. The anointings must be made: a. with the right thumb; b. in the manner of a cross; c. on both organs, beginning from the right; d. with the order of the senses prescribed in the Ritual observed.

a. Outside a case of grave necessity, the anointings are not to be made either with another finger or with a brush, and a contrary custom, if it flourished anywhere, would have to be removed.¹

Nevertheless, nothing prevents the anointings in a case of necessity, e.g., in time of plague, from being made by means of a brush or little rod, afterward to be burned, because in this sacrament, as in confirmation, imposition of the hand is not required, and therefore neither is immediate anointing by the hand of the minister. Yet according to the judgment of the physicians now living, anointings can always be made with the finger itself without danger of contagion.

b. That the anointing must be made in the form of a cross is not required by the essence of the sacrament, but by precept of the Church; for nowhere, neither in the Council of Florence nor in Trent, is this indicated. Therefore in a case of necessity the anointing can be made also by a simple touch; but without necessity the prescribed mode is not to be omitted.²

c. It is not required by necessity of the sacrament, but only by necessity of precept, binding gravely indeed, that the anointing be made in both organs of a sense, because the whole sense is had in one organ.

d. Likewise only by necessity of precept, and not binding gravely, is it required that the order prescribed in the Ritual be observed among the different senses, and that the anointing begin from the right organ rather than from the left. Finally, those who lack some sense, as the blind from birth, nevertheless are to be anointed in its organs; and those who lack the organ of a sense are to be anointed in the nearer part with the same form of words.

¹ S. C. R., May 9, 1857, n. 3051. Cn. 947, 4.

² Cn. 947, 1: "The anointings are to be performed accurately with the words, order, and mode prescribed in the ritual books." Cf. Rituale rom., tit. V, c. 2, n. 8.