I twice had the privilege of being whacked by an anesthesiologist for cancer surgery. It dawned on me that anyone who had seen me at the time would have thought I was as healthy as a horse, and likely would have thought I was “sacrament cruising”…
I would just like to underscore all you have written in light of certain posts I’m reading in this thread. You speak very well
I remember when I was a young & newly ordained priest. I confronted what were some quizzical moments in those first public anointings
- A young girl, quite lovely with the bearing of a dancer. She seemed unremarkable…except she already had undergone multiple heart surgeries for a defect being corrected in stages; she came to be anointed in church with her family present with her rather than rushed, on admission for surgery
- A college student athlete who had a severe blood disorder that was ultimately terminal
- A vibrant woman in her 20s with two small children who had a virulent form of breast cancer that had extended to other parts of the body. I buried before she was 30 and I remember her and her name after all these decades
- Several people exteriorly active but suffering from heart maladies concerning regulation of the rhythm not adequately treated by medicine or medical device. Arrhythmia is certainly a dangerous condition, above all when it is not under sufficient control
- A man whose accident left him dismembered but whose injuries were plagued by a dangerous infection that always was just out of the reach of his physicians and that resulted in subsequent operations to resolve gangrene
- A distinguished man, well dressed and well presented, whom I couldn’t readily discern his complaint. I’d taken him to be 50…he was almost 80
So, yes, it’s as wholly wrong for a person with absolutely no connection to the person – and is not the parish priest who properly has
cura animarum – trying to figure out why someone is approaching the sacrament of the sick as it is wrong for a parishioner to sit and speculate on why a person is not approaching the Eucharist at Communion…or what a person going to confession might have to confess. That is wholly and entirely wrong in every instance
I always methodically explained the criteria for the sacrament’s reception…providing it verbally and in writing. No one was ever questioned in such circumstances as to which criteria prompted them to come forward. I accepted their ability to make an informed decision. And I respected it
I would have been livid had a parishioner inserted themselves into this matter in the interest of “protecting the sacrament.” That is not their role and they have grossly overstepped their bounds to try to come between a parishioner, the parish priest and the administration of a sacrament
For some people, their condition may be deeply personal and one they keep confidential
I knew a number of people over the years who had received an initial diagnosis and turned to the Lord and to me for pastoral help. They were frightened. They did not know if the initial intervention would solve the issue or perhaps exacerbate it
The anointing of the sick is the Lord’s healing touch sacramentally upon the body of one who is suffering. They received the sacrament because the presence of the issue in their body was, indeed, the beginning perhaps the very inception of danger. And they needed the help of the sacrament as they confronted a very frightening and as yet not fully known danger
Being a parish priest, one was often in amazement at the crosses of various sort that people were carrying…trying to carry…often unaware by anyone else
Finally, as regard the question of mental health and addiction…I had studied psychology before I entered the seminary. Although I never practiced as a clinician, I stayed abreast of my field and it helped with regard to involvement in aspects of pastoral theology in this area
Many psychological pathologies have physiological issues; they can arise from various organic disorders or abnormalities. When that is established and that thereby there is, in fact, “danger” then the sacrament of the sick does indeed become an object for recourse in a well developed pastoral care plan for the patient being treated holistically.
The same is true for addiction which can have very far reaching physiological effects, be it alteration in brain chemistry, damage to organs that can hasten death (such as acquisition of hepatitis and liver failure), cardiac issues that result from overdose/abuse and a whole host of other issues
A priest who particularly has the
cura animarum for the sick of his diocese has to increase his own clinical knowledge in the fields of the sick whom he tends and also develop strong professional relationship with medical care-providers who can guide him in areas in which he may not have the full familiarity he needs to make determinations about the propriety of employing this sacrament in a particular diagnosis
Often, if he has received a sound formation in sacramental theology as well as pastoral theology, he will have the resources to match up with the medical explanations physicians can supply data with which he can make a cross discipline determination that he is justified in giving the sacrament to a patient who, classically, might not have received it
