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ANOINTING THE
SICK AND THE DYING
THE SACRAMENT OF ANOINTING OF THE SICK IS THE
SECOND OF THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING
—CCC, NOS. 1499-1532
I CAN SAY IN ALL SINCERITY
THAT I AM AT PEACE
In 1996, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, was told by
his doctors that he had pancreatic cancer and did not have long to live.
He did in fact die in November of that year. He was born in South Carolina
in 1928, the son of Italian immigrants. His father was a stonecutter; his
mother, a seamstress. At age thirty-eight, he became the youngest bishop
in the United States. He served as president of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops from 1974 to 1977 and was elevated by Pope John Paul II
to the College of Cardinals in 1983. He is remembered for a significant num-
ber of achievements, but the manner in which he faced his forthcoming
death remains one of his most memorable gifts to all people.
At an earlier stage of his illness while he was undergoing treatments,
Cardinal Bernardin reached out to other patients, especially those who
were terminally ill. He met many of them at the hospital waiting room, took
down their names and addresses and phone numbers, and stayed in
touch with them by phone and mail. He offered them his love, his prayers,
and his encouragement and in some instances was able to give them the
Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
He called death “a friend”: “While I know that humanly speaking I will
have to deal with difficult moments, and there will be tears, I can say in all
sincerity, that I am at peace. I consider this as God’s special gift to me at
this particular moment in my life.”