Q: I received the new ritual for the Anointing of the Sick yesterday, so I thought I’d run a couple questions by you:

1) I see with dismay that my favorite Prayer after Anointing in the old rite, (“…When he is afraid, give him courage, when afflicted, give him patience, when dejected, afford him hope…”) has been removed from the new ritual. Would, in your opinion, the provision in no. 41 of the praenotanda (“Accordingly in the celebration the Priest should preserve the structure of the rite, adapted, nevertheless, to the circumstances of place and persons.”) allow for the old prayer’s continued use, if the priest deems it advantageous to the circumstance, or are we out of luck? If the latter, I presume that it could be used apart from the official rite, perhaps as a part of a more “spontaneous” blessing of a sick person?

2) I see in a couple of places this rubric: “If necessary, the Priest should hear the sacramental confession of the sick person, which, in case of necessity, may even be generic, if it cannot be done in another way.” What, practically speaking, is a “generic” confession? I don’t see the term used in the Order of Penance or in any of my other research sources. Could it be, for example, the recitation of the Confiteor, or something like, “Have you not shown love to God or your neighbor? Yes.” And that would suffice?

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1) That prayer appears to be one that ICEL composed. It has no number in the margin correlating it to one from the original Latin, and I don’t see a parallel in the typical edition or the revised translation. So, no, it’s not part of anointing any more. You could use it for other prayers for a sick person.

2) I comment on this in my forthcoming book, To Free, Save and Raise Up. I make this remark: “The Roman Ritual called this a ‘general confession’ (Title V, Chapter IV, 17), which probably referred to the Confiteor, recited either by the sick person or by someone on their behalf. If the dying person expresses contrition in any way, the priest offers absolution.” 

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