Sacraments of reconciliation and anointing

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines

What it is

What the rites are (as the Church teaches them). The Church counts both among its seven sacraments. Penance and Reconciliation ("confession") is the sacrament in which, the Church teaches, sins committed after baptism are forgiven and the penitent is reconciled with God and with the Church; the two…

Format

• What must be confessed: grave sins committed after baptism that are recalled after careful examination of conscience and not yet confessed individually, stated by kind and number. Confessing venial sins is recommended but not required.
• Celebration: a communal liturgy held at home, in hospital or in church, for one person or a group. It may be celebrated within the Eucharist and preceded by Penance. It opens with the Liturgy of the Word and an act of repentance, and its principal actions are the silent laying on of hands, prayer…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Clinical position: anointing is a religious rite. This guide does not present it as a treatment for physical disease, and its evidence status as a medical treatment is not a matter these sources address. All medical decisions stay with the client's doctors.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• guilt that turns compulsive; isolation from a parish the client has stopped attending.
• collusion (agreeing about theology), countertransference anger at the Church, or evangelising in either direction.
• a client using confession to avoid civil disclosure; a client believing that confessing to the therapist is "safe" like the confessional.
• shame and reluctance to disclose intrusive blasphemous or sexual thoughts. Clients may hide them because of their content. Ask in a matter-of-fact way.
• referral used to avoid clinical work; clergy with no OCD knowledge reinforcing compulsions; a client who has been harmed by clergy and is pushed back toward them.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.