Adsum

January 2006

Repetition of Extreme Unction

Father Connell Answers Moral Questions
by Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., L.L.D., L.H.D.

Question: It is evident from the Code (Can. 940 §2) that Extreme Unction may be repeated in the same illness if the sick person has rallied (convaluerit) and then fallen into another danger of death. However, this concerns the right to another reception of this sacrament. Is there a duty to receive it?

Answer: If the sick person recovers to such an extent that the danger of death seems certainly to have passed away (although he is still sick) and then lapses again into the danger of death, it would seem that Extreme Unction must be received again. For the efficacy of this sacrament perdures only as long as the danger of death continues; hence, in the case described, the salutary effects of the first anointing are no longer present when the second danger arises. It should be noted that in referring to an obligation to receive Extreme Unction we are abstracting from the question whether there is per se a grave obligation to receive this sacrament at all; but at least there is a light obligation.

If there is only probability that the first danger of death had passed away with the temporary improvement, the sacrament may be repeated, but there is no obligation to receive it again. If it is administered, the conferring should be conditional. In the words of Fr. Kilker: “When there is a partial recovery, whereby the patient is placed probably out of danger of death, only to be followed by a relapse, Extreme Unction may be repeated, just as it can be given originally when there is a prudent fear that danger is present. In such a case all that is necessary would be probable judgment that a new danger of death has arisen” (Kilker, Extreme Unction [St. Louis: Herder, 1927], p. 194 ).

From the fact that there is probably no grave obligation per se to receive Extreme Unction when a person is in danger of death, and no obligation to ask again for this sacrament after having received it once, when it is only probable that the first danger had passed away, one may not conclude that the obligation of the pastor to confer it is parallel. He has a duty which is per se grave to give Extreme Unction to any one of the flock who reasonably requests it, even though the person himself has no strict obligation to receive it.

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