Chapter IV. On the Minister of Extreme Unction

I say 1°. § 1. Every and only priest validly administers this sacrament (Can. 938).

It is established from the Council of Trent, sess. 14, on Extreme Unction, can. 4: "If anyone shall have said that the presbyters of the Church, whom blessed James exhorts to be brought in for anointing the sick person, are not priests ordained by a Bishop, but elders by age in any community, and for this reason that the proper minister of Extreme Unction is not the priest alone, let him be anathema."

I say 2°. § 2. With the prescription of can. 397, n. 3, 514, §§ 1-3, preserved, the ordinary minister is the pastor of the place in which the sick person dwells; but in a case of necessity, or with at least reasonably presumed permission of the same pastor or of the Ordinary of the place, any other priest can minister this sacrament (Can. 938).

Question 1. Whether any priest can minister this sacrament from the probably presumed consent of the Pastor?

Resp. Affirmatively, as is clear from Canon 938, § 2.

Question 2. Whether, or what kind, is the obligation of ministering Extreme Unction?

Resp. The ordinary minister is held from justice to administer this sacrament personally himself or through another; and in a case of necessity any priest is held from charity (Can. 939), to those dangerously sick.

I said to those dangerously sick, because the last article of death is not to be awaited. Thus canon 944 says: ... with all zeal and diligence care must be taken that the sick, while they are fully masters of themselves, receive it. Indeed theologians commonly teach that Pastors sin gravely who defer it until the sick person is deprived of the use of the senses and reason, because thus the sick person lacks the richer fruit which he would have perceived if he had received this sacrament while master of reason; besides, because he is deprived of spiritual strengths for resisting the demon and for bearing the inconveniences of disease; finally, because by virtue of this sacrament he could have obtained health of body if it had been conferred upon him at a fitting time. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 729.

Question 3. Whether, and what kind of sin it is: 1°. to omit the prayers prescribed in the Ritual; 2°. to minister without sacred vestments; 3°. without light; 4°. to omit the sign of the cross in making the unctions; 5°. to employ no assisting minister?

Resp. To the first and second, that it is mortal, provided there is not question of a case of necessity; and the reason is because the matter is grave. - To the third and fourth, that it is only venial, and, when some cause intervenes, that there is no sin. - To the fifth, that probably there is no sin even outside a case of necessity. Yet certainly a woman is never to be employed for the office of minister; and if a cleric or layman cannot easily be found, let the priest alone perform all the ceremonies and himself respond to the prayers. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, nn. 824 and following.