Summary of Instructions on Prayers for Healing by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2000)

In 2000, under Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the Instruction on Prayers for Healing (IPH) to guide bishops in discerning and regulating healing prayer gatherings. The aim was to promote what is good and correct abuses, ensuring that healing practices remain faithful to Catholic liturgy and doctrine. Because such norms must rest on clear theological foundations, the Instruction begins with a doctrinal note before laying out disciplinary guidelines.

1. Doctrinal Aspects

• Illness in salvation history: The Old Testament linked sickness to sin but also saw it as a test for the just, while Christ fulfilled the prophetic hope by healing the sick as signs of God’s kingdom. Miraculous healings continued with the apostles and early Church, yet Christ’s Passion shows that suffering itself can become redemptive when united with his Cross.
• Prayer for healing: Scripture and tradition affirm the goodness of praying for both bodily and spiritual health. Jesus never reproached the sick for seeking healing, and the Church continues this ministry above all through the Anointing of the Sick, which strengthens the suffering and anticipates the resurrection.
• Charisms and sacraments: The New Testament shows both charismatic healings (1 Cor 12) and sacramental healing through priestly anointing (Jas 5:14–15). Both belong to the Church’s mission, though they are distinct.
• Tradition and liturgy: The Fathers, Augustine especially, affirmed prayer for bodily healing, and East–West liturgical rites consistently pray for health of body, soul, and spirit.
• Today’s context: The Church distinguishes between miraculous healings at places of prayer and the “charism of healing,” which is given freely by the Spirit and cannot be claimed as permanent. Healing gatherings must preserve the primacy of worship and remain open to God’s will, remembering that grace is made perfect even in weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

2. Disciplinary Norms

• No mixing with other rites: Healing prayers may not be inserted into Mass, sacraments, or the Liturgy of the Hours, except as intercessions (Art. 7). Exorcisms are separate and must never be combined with healing services or sacramental liturgies (Art. 8).
• Prayer for healing is always permitted, but when held publicly in sacred places should normally be led by an ordained minister (Art. 1).
• Liturgical vs. non-liturgical: Liturgical healing prayers must follow approved rites (e.g., Rituale Romanum), while non-liturgical gatherings remain under the bishop’s oversight and must avoid confusion with the liturgy or any hysteria, theatricality, or sensationalism (Arts. 2–5, 9).
• Bishops’ authority: The diocesan bishop regulates all healing services, grants or denies permission, and may intervene even when other bishops are present (Art. 4, 10).
• Pastoral cautions: As Fr. Edward McNamara noted in Zenit, bishops’ conferences (such as in Northern Italy, 2018) have added concrete norms: “Healing Masses” require explicit written permission renewed annually; they may not be celebrated monthly or on Sundays and solemnities; and only approved Missal formularies may be used. Abuses such as indiscriminate anointing of those not seriously ill, mixing in exorcism prayers, or treating healing services as spectacles or sources of income are expressly forbidden.
  

3. What Is a “Healing Mass”?

Strictly speaking, the only legitimate “Healing Mass” is the Mass with the conferral of the Anointing of the Sick as provided in approved ritual books (the Roman Missal and Pastoral Care of the Sick). This Mass includes the reception of the sick, the liturgy of the Word, the laying on of hands, the prayer over the oil, anointing, and the Eucharist. Other forms of healing prayer, whether charismatic or devotional, are valuable but distinct—they must never be confused with or substituted for this sacramental celebration. For a good article explaining this, click here.