Modified anointing?

[lkopteros]

Is it common practice to give someone the Sacrament of the Sick, who is in the hospital but not dying a modified version where only the forehead is anointed and not the palms of the hands?

 

[passus]

The same rite of Anointing of the Sick is used whether the person receiving the sacrament is dying or only ill. The form of the rite calls for an anointing of the person on both the forehead and on the hands, in the Roman rite. Moreover, the prayer to be said while the head is anointed is different from the prayer said while the hands are anointed, which only further emphasizes the importance of the latter.

Modifying the rite in the way you have described would be illicit.

 

[FrDavid96]

Is it common practice to give someone the Sacrament of the Sick, who is in the hospital but not dying a modified version where only the forehead is anointed and not the palms of the hands?

No, it’s neither common practice, nor is it licit. Only those who are seriously ill should ever be anointed. If this is being done as a way of inappropriately (and illicitly) anointing those who are not in need (eligible) for the Sacrament, then it is a serious problem.

In a true emergency, the anointing of the hands might be omitted, or if there is some other obvious obstacle (like bandages on a burn victim), but to do so as a matter of choice is not at all licit.

 

[lkopteros]

I was pretty sick. I’ve been receiving chemotherapy so I have no immune system right now and I developed a really bad infection in my port a cath which spread through my chest toward my heart. The tissues also became necrotic from chemo that had leaked out of the port so it was very painful. I had received the Sacrament before when I was sick but never that way. I was told that he only does the full version if someone is near death but at the time there was a good chance I might overcome the infection although I’m still pretty sick and that was a couple of months ago. However I’ve been able to continue with the therapy. I’m only concerned because there’s a good chance that one of these times I probably won’t get better. There is no cure for my disease only the hopes for a period of remission but I was told I would eventually die from this. The biggest question that I face now is if I want to receive Communion if I’m in the hospital because when I’m there they put me in isolation and I just don’t feel right receiving the Body of Christ from someone wearing rubber gloves, who after holding the Body with those gloves, throws them into the trash. My brain knows that the chance there might be some remnants of the Body on those gloves are low but my heart doesn’t know that. I spent the afternoon crying everytime I woke up thinking Jesus was in the garbage. Granted the drugs didn’t help my state of mind nor did the infection but I will definitely think twice before receiving Communion from gloves ever again. After I had a bone marrow transplant I drank from the cup in spite of being told by doctors not to and nothing bad happened to me, I caught nothing and I don’t believe I ever will. If anyone reads this maybe you could pray that in the end I can make it 150 miles away to the nearest Catholic hospital, maybe there I will find some peace until I can get to Jesus?

 

[passus]

The biggest question that I face now is if I want to receive Communion if I’m in the hospital because when I’m there they put me in isolation and I just don’t feel right receiving the Body of Christ from someone wearing rubber gloves, who after holding the Body with those gloves, throws them into the trash. My brain knows that the chance there might be some remnants of the Body on those gloves are low but my heart doesn’t know that. I spent the afternoon crying everytime I woke up thinking Jesus was in the garbage. Granted the drugs didn’t help my state of mind nor did the infection but I will definitely think twice before receiving Communion from gloves ever again.

That’s scrupulosity and you shouldn’t let it keep you from receiving the Body of Christ.

The person who brings you Holy Communion is going to check their gloves before removing them and discarding them, just like anyone else distributing Communion checks his or her hands for stray particles afterward.

Also, particles are really nothing you have to worry about with the way altar breads are made today. They have “sealed edges” which means no crumbs anyway.