Christian Burial - Catholic Burial Ritual

Catholic Burial Ritual

The various Catholic religious observances surrounding mortal remains can be divided into three stages. The following three stages assume, however, that the full funeral rites are celebrated, including the Funeral (Requiem) Mass, which, since it is a Mass, must be celebrated by a priest. If a Catholic deacon officiates, the Funeral Mass does not occur, however, a Memorial Mass may be said later for the deceased. The deacon leads the prayer services at the home and the funeral home, blesses the remains at the church during another prayer service, and then leads the prayers of final commendation at the gravesite. In very rare cases where there are not enough priests and deacons (due to a shortage of vocations together with an increased number of funerals and other necessary duties) or there are none (in an area- usually rural and isolated- with no or very few ordained ministers and/or where getting to a church is very prohibitive), canon law allows (with the Bishop's specific authorization) some non-clergy to lead a non-liturgical prayer service for the dead at the church and to lead prayers at the gravesite. These individuals may or may not be relatives of the deceased, and they are usually religious sisters or brothers or certain laypersons- especially if they exercise other ministries in the Church, and provided they have some degree of formation. If the traditional three-part funeral rites are celebrated, they proceed as follows: