Legal change proposed to ensure access to ‘last rites’

22nd October 2021

A U.K. lawmaker has proposed adding an “Amess amendment” to a bill going through Parliament so Catholic priests can administer the Last Rites at crime scenes. A priest wishing to administer the Last Rites to Conservative MP David Amess last week following his fatal stabbing, was barred from approaching the stricken politician in case he contaminated the crime scene.

Mike Kane, a Labour Member of Parliament, is seeking to add the amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

The Guardian newspaper quoted a spokesperson for Kane, who is Catholic, as saying that the “Amess amendment” would protect the right of Catholic priests and other ministers of religion to pray alongside the dying.

Earlier, a Catholic bishop called for greater recognition of the Last Rites as an “emergency service” in the wake of the killing.

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, western England, said: “Every believing Catholic desires to hear Christ’s words of pardon and absolution for the last time; to be strengthened by the grace of anointing; accompanied by the assurance of the Church’s prayer and whenever possible to receive Holy Communion.”

“This is something well understood in hospitals and care homes, yet the events following the murderous assault on Sir David Amess suggest this is not always comprehended in emergency situations.”

“I hope a better understanding of the eternal significance of the hour of death for Christians and the Church’s ministry as an ‘emergency service’ may result from this terrible tragedy.”