Roman Catholic Funeral - Canon Law On Catholic Funerals

Canon Law On Catholic Funerals

In general, Roman Catholics are to be given a Catholic funeral on their death. Catechumens are to be considered as Catholics as regards funerals, and the local ordinary may permit unbaptized children whose parents intended to have them baptized to be given a Catholic funeral. The local ordinary may also, in certain circumstances, permit a baptized person who was not a Catholic to be given a Catholic funeral.

On the other hand, Catholic burial rites are to be refused to the following, unless they gave some sign of repentance before death:

1. Persons well known to be guilty of apostasy, heresy or schism;
2. Those who asked to be cremated for anti-Christian motives;
3. Manifest sinners, if the granting of Church funeral rites to them would cause scandal to Catholics.

Other rules of canon law concern the church in which the funeral rites are to be celebrated, the funeral dues that are payable to a priest for conducting the funeral and the cemetery in which they are to be buried.

The ordinary forms of the Roman Rite in use before the Second Vatican Council are now extraordinary forms. That of 1962 is explicitly authorized for continued use, under certain conditions, by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Funerals are one of the occasions on which this document states: "For faithful and priests who request it, the pastor should also allow celebrations in this extraordinary form for special circumstances.

According to the liturgical norms and canon laws relating to the celebration of funeral Masses, they are usually not celebrated on Sunday (unless it is during the afternoon), and are not generally celebrated on other solemnities or major feast days. They are normally not to be celebrated on Ash Wednesday or during Holy Week from Palm Sunday through Wednesday. They are also discouraged during the final two weeks of Lent and Advent, and are strongly discouraged during the last week of those two seasons and during the eight days that follow Easter and Christmas (their Octaves). They are not celebrated at all during the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday), during Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, and on January 1 (St. Mary's principal feast), and are also not done during the day preceding Christmas Day and the day preceding January 1. However, the Pope (and in some instances, the local ordinary) can make exceptions to some of the latter absolute prohibitions (Pope Benedict XVI allowed his Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, to perform a single Funeral Mass for a group of the deceased on Good Friday, when no Mass at all is normally offered, after the L'Aquila earthquake).