Iron Content of Rifle Ammo (SS109/M855, M59, M61, M80, M855A1, etc.)

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Does anyone happen to know if blessing oil is restricted to olive oil, or if it would be permissable to bless the kind of oil that could be used to store ammunition in?

I'm no theologian, but I'm pretty sure we can't question the theological credentials of the Pope. Pope Paul VI did in fact expand the range of oils permissible in creation of one of the holy oils (there are three kinds) beyond just olive oil, but (my emphasis in bold):

Originally Posted by Sacram Unctione Infirmorum, 1972

Further, since olive oil, which hitherto had been prescribed for the valid administration of the sacrament, is unobtainable or difficult to obtain in some parts of the world, we decreed, at the request of numerous bishops, that in the future, according to the circumstances, oil of another sort could also be used, provided it were obtained from plants, inasmuch as this more closely resembles the matter indicated in Holy Scripture.
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Therefore, since this revision in certain point’s touches upon the sacramental rite itself, by our Apostolic authority we lay down that the following is to be observed for the future in the Latin Rite:

THE SACRAMENT OF THE ANOINTING OF THE SICK IS ADMINISTERED TO THOSE WHO ARE DANGEROUSLY ILL, BY ANOINTING THEM ON THE FOREHEAD AND HANDS WITH OLIVE OIL, OR, IF OPPORTUNE, WITH ANOTHER VEGETABLE OIL, PROPERLY BLESSED, AND SAYING ONCE ONLY THE FOLLOWING WORDS: "PER ISTAM SANCTAM UNCTIONEM ET SUAM PIISSIMAM MISERICORDIAM ADIUVET TE DOMINUS GRATIA SPIRITUS SANCTI, UT A PECCATIS LIBERATUM TE SALVET ATQUE PROPITIUS ALLEVIET.

https://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-v...unctionem.html

(I found this via a question about whether or not you could make do with petroleum-derived paraffin in an emergency, which also has some relevance. The answer there* was "no".)

Of course, this simply highlights the possibility that a later Pope expands the range yet further. If the Vatican is clued in, they might adapt. Since there's more than one kind of holy oil, it also suggests that this Pope might invent a fourth type of holy oil specifically to be used against supernatural threats, and allowing this type of oil to be of non-plant origin, which at least preserves the traditional formulas for the existing three types. At worst, oil #4 would just be non-holy, if creation of a new oil were somehow a mistake, but would still preserve the ammunition. Though my understanding is a Pope can't make that kind of mistake, what with things bound on earth being bound in heaven. If he says there's a new holy oil, so it becomes.

Otherwise, "chrism" seems to be the most general-purpose oil. Incidentally, it has a varying recipe including various sorts of balms and balsams in the olive oil. It's not straight olive oil. The blessings used in the three types are different, and the most significant difference.

Another tidbit that I learned was that the holy oils are created annually by the bishop of a church with the full set of priests (presbyterium) in attendance at a Chrism Mass on Maundy Thursday. Perhaps there's some dramatic or color potential there -- maybe a target for the bad guys who'd like to disrupt the supply of this iron ammunition. It is permissible in an emergency for any priest to bless oil as a part of actually performing a sacrament (as opposed to preparing it for future use, I think), but that seems to be more an exception for a sacrament like extreme unction than for storing ammunition.

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* by one "Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university" in Rome, since we're considering credentials :)