Q: I just wish to share my surprise, being a foreigner. I am wondering why at numbers 51, 88, 276, 314 of the 2020 USA order of baptism for children it is written that after anointing with oil of Catechumens, the presider in silence “lays his hand on the child”. On number 115 that gesture is even without the anointing. How did this end up in the US ritual? What sense does it make with this kind of anointing? Is it correct? I don’t think it’s an epiclesis, otherwise the Deacon could not do it.
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A: The typical edition lets an episcopal conference omit the anointing with catechumens altogether and replace it with handlaying. Blessing the oil of catechumens may even be omitted from the chrism Mass! Our conference kept the oil in the OBC and allowed the CELEBRANT to determine whether or not to use it. If he does not, then he imposes a hand. The laying on of hands is probably a vestige of the preconciliar rite (see #12 for example), where it may have had more to do with exorcism than epiclesis.