Anointing of the Sick is available to anyone who is about to undergo serious surgery or who is suffering from the ill effects of a progressive illness or enduring the natural decline of old age. It may be given many times. This is not necessarily last rites. The real last rite of the Church is holy communion given as viaticum (food for the journey home to God)

Who can receive the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick

    The Anointing of the Sick is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age , the fitting time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived.

    If a sick person who received this anointing recovers his health, he can in the case of another grave illness receive this sacrament again.. If during the same illness the person's condition becomes more serious, the sacrament mat be repeated. It is fitting to receive the Anointing of the Sick just prior to a serious operation. The same holds for the elderly whose frailty becomes more pronounced.

Who can administer the sacrament

    Only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the Anointing of the Sick.

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