Q: In reviewing the new Order of the Anointing of the Sick and of Their Pastoral Call, I note that the texts for the Ritual Mass for the Anointing of the Sick (formerly found at nos. 135-148 in the 1983 edition) are now absent.  Instead, the new rubrics (no. 81) direct one to use the Mass “For the Sick” from Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions in the Roman Missal.  Can you speak a bit to this shift?  Thank you!

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A: I cover this in my new book, To Free, Save and Raise Up. The postconciliar missal never had a Ritual Mass for Anointing the Sick, though the typical edition permitted one. The 1983 translation added elements to the Mass: alternative presidential prayers, a preface, and intercessions for insertion into three eucharistic prayers. The only thing that remains is the third form of the penitential act, which ended up as the last option in an appendix of the Roman Missal in the US.

I go into a lot more detail in my book.

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