{"id":25501,"date":"2011-04-06T21:09:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T21:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/site\/2017\/2\/1985\/rns_dying_plan_ahead_priests_scarce_for_last_rites\/"},"modified":"2011-04-06T21:09:39","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T21:09:39","slug":"rns_dying_plan_ahead_priests_scarce_for_last_rites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=25501","title":{"rendered":"(RNS) Dying? Plan ahead: Priests scarce for last rites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In days long gone, Roman Catholic priests regularly made deathbed house calls, even in the middle of the night with little notice, to pray over the dying and anoint them with holy oils.<\/p>\n<p>The candlelight ritual, popularly known as last rites, continues in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice houses and private homes. But it happens less frequently because priests \u201d\u201d the only ones who can perform the service \u201d\u201d are in short supply.<\/p>\n<p>Although fewer Catholics are seeking what&#8217;s officially known as the sacrament of anointing of the sick, those who do want it could be at risk of reaching their final hours without the prayer-whispering presence of a Roman-collared priest unless they plan ahead.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/religion\/2011-04-06-dying_Catholic_priest_05_ST_N.htm\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In days long gone, Roman Catholic priests regularly made deathbed house calls, even in the middle of the night with little notice, to pray over the dying and anoint them with holy oils. The candlelight ritual, popularly known as last<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=25501\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,42,438,435,154,184,364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-life-church-life","category-religion-news-commentary","category-death-burial-funerals","category-ministry-of-the-ordained","category-other-churches","category-parish-ministry","category-roman-catholic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}