Receiving the Sacrament of the Sick for somone else

[OnBendedKnee]

A friend “C” recently attended a healing mass. She told me that the priest(s) there administered the sacrament of the sick. The priests invited those in need of the sacrament to receive it and also invited others to receive it for someone in need who couldn’t be there. That is not the first time “C” has been told that this sacrament can be given to one person on behalf of a second. I asked if she was sure it was the sacrament they were referring to and not a blessing and “C” replied that yes it was the sacrament. Does anyone know if this can be done?

 

[gradstud35]

I have no ideal. I do know priests seem to put alot of their own interpretation into this sacrament about what can be done and what can’t be done.

Our parish has this sacrament every week. I went to the sacrament one time and the associate priest told this lady who showed up that she was coming too much and that the sacrament was for people who were really sick. Then they got into a fight in front of everyone because she said she had checked with our senior priest and he said she could come every week and apparently he felt her medical condition warranted the sacrament.

 

[Linda_Marie]

I asked this of our PP once. We have the Anointing of the Sick every First Saturday at Mass at the nursing home. I was going up to receive it, standing proxy for others who were seriously ill or dying and unable to access this final Sacrament.

He told me, in no uncertain terms, that we cannot receive Sacraments for other people. Further research has shown that only the Sacrament of Matrimony can be valid through proxies standing for other people, but both parties must fully assent, or so I have been given to understand.

There is nothing to stop us praying for them or making offerings for them though.

Is there anything in the Catechism on this?

 

[cameron_lansing]

A friend “C” recently attended a healing mass. She told me that the priest(s) there administered the sacrament of the sick. The priests invited those in need of the sacrament to receive it and also invited others to receive it for someone in need who couldn’t be there. That is not the first time “C” has been told that this sacrament can be given to one person on behalf of a second. I asked if she was sure it was the sacrament they were referring to and not a blessing and “C” replied that yes it was the sacrament. Does anyone know if this can be done?

Oh, for heaven’s sake. There is so much manifestly wrong with this that one hardly knows where to begin.

With the exception of marriage contracted through proxy (canon 1104) as Linda Marie correctly mentions, the physicial presence of the recipient is required for the valid administration of a sacrament.

But we would look to the law of the Church and the liturgical texts rather than the Catechism to uncover this.

In the case of this sacrament, canon 998 provides “The anointing of the sick by which the Church commends to the suffering and glorified Lord the faithful who are dangerously sick so that He relieve and save them, is conferred by anointing them with oil and using the words prescribed in the liturgical books.”

The anointing cannot be conferred on a person who is not physically present, and thus they cannot receive the sacrament. This is obvious from both the canon and the liturgical books.

The requirement of physical presence is consistent throughout the moral and canonical traditions.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

A friend “C” recently attended a healing mass. She told me that the priest(s) there administered the sacrament of the sick. The priests invited those in need of the sacrament to receive it and also invited others to receive it for someone in need who couldn’t be there. That is not the first time “C” has been told that this sacrament can be given to one person on behalf of a second. I asked if she was sure it was the sacrament they were referring to and not a blessing and “C” replied that yes it was the sacrament. Does anyone know if this can be done?

No it is not possible for a person to receive any Sacrament for another person. The Sacraments are received individually.

 

[OnBendedKnee]

Thanks for the comments. That confirms what I felt and expressed to her. It’s good to have that confimation.