The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"EXTREME UXCTION. 439He had begun to send His disciples two and two,(Mark vi. 7-13,) they anointed and healed many,which unction the Church has since maintained bypious usage, as we learn from the Epistle of St.James Is :any man sick among you, etc. Thefruits proper to this Sacrament, as St. James declares, are the remission of sins, health of soulstrength, in fine, of body. But thoughit does notalways produce this last result, it always at leastrestores the soul to a better state, by the forgivenessof sins." This is precisely the Catholic teaching onthis subject. All the other Oriental churches, someof which separated from Rome in the fifth century,likewise enumerate Extreme Unction among theirSacraments.Such identity of doctrine proclaimed during somany ages, by churches so wide apart, can have noother than an Apostolic origin.The eminent Protestant Leibnitz makes thiscandid admission : There is no room for muchdiscussion regarding the unction of the sick. It issupported by the words of Scripture, the interpretation of the Church, in which pious and Catholicmen safely confide. Nor do I see what any one canfind reprehensible in that practice which the Churchlaccepts."Protestants, though professing to be guided by theHoly Scripture, entirely disregard the admonition1Systema Theol., p. 280.