Sacraments

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A newly announced reform of an association of women's religious congregations in the U.S. offers the sisters and their bishops an opportunity to communicate and work together more closely, said the archbishop named by the Vatican to oversee the reform process.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle spoke to Catholic News Service in Rome April 22, a day after arriving for a periodic "ad limina" visit to the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In what the Vatican described as an encouraging "step forward," the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has revised its response to a Vatican document laying out certain basic doctrinal principles and criteria for interpreting Church teaching.

Q: Why don't parishes offer the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick more often? Wouldn't it be a good idea to offer it on a regular basis, say once a month or so? 

Obviously, Jesus bestowed this great gift upon His Church with the understanding that she would make it as available as possible to His people for their spiritual and physical benefit. That being said, however, He also cautioned us not to dispense the sacraments frivolously, telling us neither to "cast (our) pearls before swine" nor to "give what is holy to dogs."