Divine Worship & Sacraments

In decrees dated November 30, 2024 (Prot. n. 334/23 and Prot. n. 342/23), the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has confirmed the English translation of the Order of the Anointing of the Sick and of their Pastoral Care and the Spanish translation of the Ritual de la Unción de los enfermos y de su atención pastoral for liturgical use in the United States. The decrees and confirmed texts were received by the USCCB in December.

Following a customary editorial review period by the Secretariat of Divine Worship, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, USCCB President, issued decrees of promulgation on January 23, 2025 establishing the implementation timeline. The new Anointing rites may be used from February 11, 2026 (the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes and annual World Day of the Sick), and must be used as of Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026.

The International Commission on English in the Liturgy translated the Order of the Anointing of the Sick, while the Spanish translation approved for Mexico was used as the base text of the Ritual de la Unción de los enfermos. Both texts will replace the current Anointing rituals in use since the early 1980s, Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum (PCS) and its Spanish counterpart, Cuidado pastoral de los enfermos: Ritos de la Unción y del Viático.

Compared with the Latin typical edition, Pastoral Care of the Sick was rearranged in a manner suitable for both clergy and lay ministers, and included a multitude of options for prayers and readings. The Order of the Anointing of the Sick restores the typical edition’s arrangement and includes options that are fewer in number. By reorienting the use of this ritual book to only priests and deacons, the new translation will be much easier for clergy to use in pastoral settings. As implementation approaches, however, the USCCB will ensure that lay ministers continue to have access to those texts which they use in ministry to the sick and homebound.

Along with the English and Spanish translations, the Holy See also confirmed several ritual and textual adaptations for this country. First, the new edition retains several adaptations present in the current text concerning the qualifications for the reception of the sacrament (for example, PCS no. 53), though simplified and incorporated into no. 8 of the introduction. Additionally, although the typical edition does not include a “short form” of Anointing for use in hospitals and institutions, the USCCB added a rubric at the beginning of the Anointing of the Sick chapter allowing priests to omit some elements from the ordinary rite of Anointing when visiting multiple patients in a hospital or institution. Also, some material not present in the typical edition but included in Pastoral Care of the Sick has been retained in the new Anointing rites. Model rites for visiting a sick adult and a sick child, Christian Initiation in danger of death (cf. Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, nos. 370-399), prayers after death (cf. Order of Christian Funerals, nos. 101-108), and the emergency rite of Penance, Anointing, and Viaticum will appear as Appendices I-IV in the Order of the Anointing of the Sick, respectively.