Vigil · Print output

The Priest-Call Card

A 3.5×2 wallet card for the moment you have to make the hardest phone call of your life with a clear head. The front: exactly what to say. The back: exactly what to ask for — and a line for your own parish's after-hours number, filled in now, before you ever need it.

Why this card exists

Because panic makes you forget the words. When a loved one is dying, the call to the parish should take ten seconds and ask for the right things. This card gives you the sentence and the checklist, so the priest knows exactly what to bring and you do not have to think under grief.

Fill in the blank now. Look up your parish's phone number — and the diocesan after-hours emergency line if there is one — and write it on the card before you put it in your wallet. The night you need it is not the night to go searching.

How to use this page

Click Print this card below. Set paper to business-card stock (3.5×2) if you can; otherwise print on letter and trim. Choose two-sided (flip on long edge). Two faces, one card — for the wallet, behind the license.

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Preview — this is what prints

1765 Sanctum

When you call the parish

Say this

“My [father / mother / wife / friend] is dying and needs a priest for the Last Rites — Confession, the Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum. Can a priest come? And please, the Apostolic Pardon.”

No answer? Call any nearby Catholic parish — any priest may anoint the dying. Then keep praying.

A priest is bound to come · canon 1003

1765 Sanctum

Ask the priest for

The four things

Confession — if able to confess
Anointing of the Sick — holy oil
Viaticum — Holy Communion for the journey
Apostolic Pardon — indulgence at death

My parish:

After-hours:

masstimes.org · find a priest

Sources on this card The duty of a priest to attend the dying: 1983 Code of Canon Law can. 1003 (a priest is to administer the Anointing) and can. 921 (the obligation of Viaticum for the dying). Any priest may anoint and absolve the dying, even outside his own parish: can. 1003 §2, can. 967 §2. The Last Rites — Confession, Anointing, Viaticum — and the Apostolic Pardon: Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum (nos. 195, 201). The proper sacrament of the dying is Viaticum: Catechism §1524–1525.