This sacrament was long known in English as “extreme unction,” literally rendered from its Latin name, unctio extrema, meaning “last anointing.” It is conferred by anointing the forehead and hands with blessed oil and pronouncing a prayer. It may be conferred only on those who are seriously ill or who have been seriously injured, or on elderly people who are experiencing the frailties of old age. Seriousness is measured by the danger of death, but imminent death, however certain, from external causes—such as the execution of a death sentence—does not render one apt for the sacrament. It may be administered again during the same illness if the illness worsens. Its effects are described as the strengthening of both soul and body. An ancient rite that continues Jesus’ ministry of healing, the sacrament is directed against “the remains of sin.” Although this is a poorly defined phrase, it was long ago recognized that serious illness saps one’s spiritual resources as well as one’s physical strength so that one is not able to meet the crisis of mortal danger with all one’s powers. In popular belief, anointing is most valuable as a complement to confession or—in case of unconsciousness—as a substitute for it.

Anointing is not the sacrament of the dying—it is the sacrament of the sick. The New Testament passage to which the Roman Catholic Church appeals for this rite (James 5:14–15) does not envisage a person beyond recovery. Postponement until the patient is critically ill (in modern medical terms) means that the sacrament is often administered to unconscious or heavily sedated patients even though the church urges that the sacrament be given, if possible, while the person is still conscious.

Marriage

The inclusion of marriage among the sacraments gives the Roman Catholic Church jurisdiction over an institution that is of as much concern to the state as it is to the church. The church claims complete jurisdiction over the marriages of its members, even though it is unable to urge this jurisdiction in modern secular states. The sacrament in Roman Catholic teaching is administered by the spouses through the exchange of consent. The priest, whose presence is required, is an authorized official witness; in addition, the church requires two other witnesses. Marriage is safeguarded by a number of impediments that render the marriage null whether they are known or not, and the freedom of the spouses must be assured. This means that the Roman Catholic Church demands an unusually rigorous examination before the marriage, and this in turn means that it is practically impossible to marry on impulse in the Catholic church. All of this is for the purpose of assuring that the marriage so contracted will not be declared null in the future because of some defect.

The rigid Roman Catholic rejection of divorce, which is based on the teachings of Jesus, has been a major cause of hostility toward the church in the modern world. Absolute indissolubility is declared only of the marriage of two baptized persons (Protestants as well as Catholics). The same indissolubility is not declared of marriages of the unbaptized, but the Roman Catholic Church recognizes no religious or civil authority except itself that is empowered to dissolve such marriages; this claim is extremely limited and is not used unless a Roman Catholic is involved. Declarations of nullity, however, should not be confused with divorce nor be thought of as a substitute for divorce.

The onerous conditions that Roman Catholicism formerly imposed upon non-Catholic partners in “mixed” marriages have been relaxed significantly since Vatican II, particularly as regards written promises that the children will receive religious education in the Roman Catholic faith. The church’s former rigidity toward such marriages has also largely disappeared. They may now be celebrated in church during the mass, and a Protestant minister or a Jewish rabbi may share the witness function with the priest.

Holy orders

This sacrament confers upon candidates the power over the sacred, which means the power to administer the sacraments. The Latin church had long recognized four minor orders (porter, lector, exorcist, acolyte) and four major orders (subdeacon, deacon, priest, bishop). The minor orders represented church services rendered by persons not ordained. In 1972 Pope Paul VI issued the apostolic letter Ministeria quaedam (“Certain Ministries”), which abolished the major order of subdeacon and all minor orders and created the lay liturgical ministries of lector and acolyte. Only the major orders are held to be sacramental, but they are regarded as one sacrament within which a tripartite hierarchy of sacramental effects is administered separately. Ordination is conferred only by the bishop; the rite includes the imposition of hands, anointing, and delivery of the symbols of the order. The power of the sacred peculiar to the bishop is shown only in the sacraments of confirmation and orders. Ordination can neither be repeated nor annulled. Priests who are suspended from priestly powers or laicized (permanently authorized to live as laymen) retain their sacred power but are forbidden to exercise it except in emergencies. The priest is always ordained to a “title,” meaning that he is accepted in some ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Lectors and acolytes are instituted by a bishop or by the major superior of a clerical religious institute. Following a calling of the candidates, instruction, and prayer, lectors are presented with a Bible and acolytes with a vessel with bread or wine. In 1967 Pope Paul VI restored the permanent diaconate (with the powers to baptize, preach, and administer the Eucharist), to which both married and single men are admitted.

Following Vatican II, much theological discussion was devoted to such issues as the ordination of women, which is a divisive issue within the church and between the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations. Catholic women do serve in various roles, as lectors, eucharistic ministers, even marriage tribunal officers and altar servers, and a large number of women are lay chaplains. Many traditionalist Catholics, however, saw the advent of altar girls in 1994 as merely the first salvo in the battle for the complete ordination of women, and John Paul II made it clear to dioceses and bishops that they are under no pressure to use altar girls. Some nuns have also pushed for a larger role in a more “inclusive” church, and some of them have even gathered in groups to administer the Eucharist to one another at the risk of excommunication.

The mass

Roman Catholic liturgy has its roots in Judaism and the New Testament. The central act of liturgy from earliest times was the eucharistic assembly, the commemorative celebration of the Last Supper of Jesus. This was set in a structure of liturgical prayer. During the first six centuries of the Christian church, there developed a rich variety of liturgical systems, many of which have survived in the “Oriental” (i.e., Eastern) churches. In the West the Latin liturgy appeared fully developed in Rome in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Roman liturgy was adopted throughout western Europe from the 8th century. In the same period, however, liturgy developed in Frankish territories, and the Roman rite that emerged as dominant in the 10th century was a Roman-Frankish creation. The Roman rite was reformed by the Council of Trent by the removal of some corruptions and the imposition of uniformity. After Trent the Roman see was the supreme authority over liturgical practice in the entire Roman Catholic Church.

By the 11th century, Roman liturgy had acquired the classic form that it retained up to Vatican II. The fullness of the liturgy could be witnessed only in some cathedrals, collegiate churches, and monastic churches. The full liturgy included the daily celebration of the solemn high mass and the recitation of the divine office in choir. The solemn high mass was entirely sung and was performed by at least three major officers (celebrant, deacon, and subdeacon), assisted by many acolytes and ministers; the low mass was spoken and conducted by a single priest and a server or two. Except during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent, the altar was decorated, and numerous candles (used in the Middle Ages for light rather than for ornamentation) and incense were employed. Singing and chanting were accompanied by the organ and in modern times even by orchestral music. Indeed, Mozart once complained that the archbishop of Salzburg compelled him to compose a mass without the resources of a full symphonic orchestra.

Latin did not become the language of the Roman rite until the 6th century. As a sacred language, Latin really has no parallel. Jews have always made a genuine effort to learn some Hebrew, and other sacred languages are archaic forms of the vernacular; the English of the Authorized Version of the Bible became the language of prayer in many Protestant churches. The effect of the use of Latin, it has been argued, was to make the liturgy the preserve of the clergy and to make the laity essentially passive. This was countered by efforts to use sound and spectacle in the performance of the solemn liturgy. For centuries the canon of the mass, the central eucharistic formula, was recited by the celebrant inaudibly, with his back to the people, and the elevation of the host and chalice and the ringing of the bells to signal the consecration were the only means of communicating to the people that the pivotal point of the mass had arrived; the canon of the mass was a kind of verbal “sanctuary” that the laity were not even supposed to hear.

The abandonment of Latin as a result of Vatican II in the 1960s excited deep antagonisms. Some Catholics cherished the Latin liturgy and regarded it as the symbol of the timeless and changeless Roman Catholic Church. Others believed that the restoration of the vernacular would restore to the liturgy two functions that it had in the early centuries: to instruct converts and to confirm members in their faith. Although most Roman Catholics came to accept the vernacular mass approved at Vatican II, a minority group, the so-called Catholic traditionalists, rejected the reforms of Vatican II and remained devoted to the Latin mass. The best-known figures in this movement were Gommar De Pauw in the United States and, especially, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Switzerland. The missal was revised in 2011 in order to reintroduce some of the mystery and spirituality that more traditionally inclined Catholics claimed had been lost in the post-Vatican II translations.

The divine office

The divine office was a legacy to the clergy from the monks. From the earliest times, monks assembled several times daily for prayer in common. This practice developed into set common prayer at stated times each day (matins or vigils, midnight; lauds, first daylight; prime, sunrise; terce, mid-morning; sext, noon; none, mid-afternoon; vespers, sunset; compline, before retiring). The divine office consisted basically of the chanting of the Psalms (in a weekly cycle), the recital of prayers, and the reading of the Scriptures (to which were later added selections from the writings of the Church Fathers, probably instead of a homily given by one of those present). Together with the mass, the office has been the only “official” prayer of the Roman Catholic Church; all other prayer forms are “private,” even if several hundred people recite them together. For this reason, clerics in major orders since the Middle Ages have been obliged to recite the divine office, or “breviary,” privately if they are not bound to attend the office in choir. It was long recognized that there is an inconsistency in the private silent reading of a prayer structure that is intended for choral chanting. Vatican II recommended a reform of the canonical hours, which included simplifying their observance, encouraging participation by the laity, and restoring the practice of singing the hours in groups.

The liturgical year

The liturgy has traditionally been arranged in an annual cycle that is a reenactment of the saving events of the life, death, Resurrection, and glorification of Jesus Christ. The events are reenacted as an assurance that the saving act will reach its eschatological fullness, and the liturgy is an expression and a support of the Christian hope. The cult of the saints is an intrusion into the liturgical cycle, and it has been much reduced in the contemporary liturgical reforms.

The liturgical season begins with Advent, a time of preparation for the Christmas holiday. After Christmas the first of two periods of Ordinary Time follows and continues until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a time of penitence leading to the Paschal Triduum, the period beginning on Holy Thursday and ending with the evening prayer on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday marks the start of the Easter season, which continues as a time of celebration until Pentecost Sunday, some 50 days later. Pentecost (commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples) marks the start of the second period of Ordinary Time, which continues until the Advent season begins anew.

The color of the priest’s outer garments reflects the liturgical season or day: white or gold is worn for Christmas and Easter; purple is worn for Advent and Lent, except on the third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) and the fourth Sunday of Lent, the midpoint of the penitential seasons, when pink is worn as a sign of hope and joy; red is worn for Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and Pentecost and on the feasts of martyrs; green, another symbol of hope, is worn for the rest of the liturgical year; and white is worn for funerals as a symbol of life instead of mourning.