The Christian Funeral

 As has been reported elsewhere, the Congregation for  the Doctrine of the Faith has published an instruction regarding burial and cremation, approved by Pope Francis earlier this year. 

The time of dealing with families after a death is one of the great privileges of the priesthood and yet one that seems increasingly fraught with elements that clash with a truly Christian understanding of what is happening. Like a "good death" a "good Requiem" can be the source of great comfort and a glimpse of something both beautifully divine and truly human, a revelation about God and life - eternal life. 

So often it is a time when priests come into contact with those who are lapsed from the practice of the Faith and there is a natural desire to share the truths of the Good News with those who have perhaps been far away from them and yet it is also a difficult time to begin explaining, what might seem to them, obtuse points of doctrine. We all make compromises at such times. Yes, you can carry in the giant sized betting slip represented in flowers; no you really can't have Johnny Cash singing "Ring of Fire" at the crematorium. Yet in our hearts we know that they are missing out on the real content and value of what the Church has to offer. There is nothing so comforting, hopeful and powerful as a Requiem Mass celebrated with dignity and solemnity for a practising parishioner where the family is also believing and a great many of the parishioners are present. 

Sadly, the vast majority of funerals do not fall into this category. Sadly as well,  that the "new" Rite of Funerals caters for almost every eventuality of death except the one most frequently experienced by priests in this county - that of providing for the lapsed. There are prayers should a husband and wife have died at the same time; prayers for those who were catechumens at the time of death but nothing for those who were not ""faithful sons and daughters" (even with their sins) but were lapsed for many years.

Celebrity and secular funerals are the template in the modern mind - even quite often, of practising Catholics (and Catholic celebrity funerals have not always helped in these cases). It seems that more and more bizarre and empty rituals to "celebrate the life" of the deceased are what come to mind for the bereaved. To my own mind this "celebration" falls down on two points. 

1. That usually it canonises the deceased, leaving them bereft of prayer to assist their final journey, and depriving the mourners of a means of giving practical assistance to those who have passed beyond this earthly life (which is surely a great psychological help for them as well - something practically that they can actually DO in the helplessness of grief).

2. The "celebration" is all of the past (ironic for those who reject tradition). It is all memory and nothing of the present or future. A bleak celebration indeed, devoid of the beauteous hope given to us by Our Lord. 

3. Then there is the dreaded "Eulogy". 99 times out of 100 devoid of any reference to faith. Sometimes bringing to light embarrassing - even scandalous - elements about the deceased. 

All in all, what is actually being requested is far from Christian Faith, full of pagan and invented rituals, where what is wanted is not a priest but a DJ.

So, all in all, anything that recalls us to focus on that hope must be a good thing. So this Instruction gives us the chance for a teaching moment, especially as we are approaching the Feast of the Holy Souls and the month of November. I've managed to reproduce most of the Instruction on this week's parish Newsletter. To get the message across outside the all too sensitive time of bereavement - at least to those coming to Mass.

You can see the Instruction on the Holy See's site and I reproduce it below in full.

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo
regarding the burial of the deceased
and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation

1. To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must “be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8). With the Instruction Piam et Constantem of 5 July 1963, the then Holy Office established that “all necessary measures must be taken to preserve the practice of reverently burying the faithful departed”, adding however that cremation is not “opposed per se to the Christian religion” and that no longer should the sacraments and funeral rites be denied to those who have asked that they be cremated, under the condition that this choice has not been made through “a denial of Christian dogmas, the animosity of a secret society, or hatred of the Catholic religion and the Church”.[1] Later this change in ecclesiastical discipline was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law (1983) and the Code of Canons of Oriental Churches (1990).

During the intervening years, the practice of cremation has notably increased in many countries, but simultaneously new ideas contrary to the Church’s faith have also become widespread. Having consulted the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and numerous Episcopal Conferences and Synods of Bishops of the Oriental Churches, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has deemed opportune the publication of a new Instruction, with the intention of underlining the doctrinal and pastoral reasons for the preference of the burial of the remains of the faithful and to set out norms pertaining to the conservation of ashes in the case of cremation.

2. The resurrection of Jesus is the culminating truth of the Christian faith, preached as an essential part of the Paschal Mystery from the very beginnings of Christianity: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve” (1 Cor 15:3-5).

Through his death and resurrection, Christ freed us from sin and gave us access to a new life, “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rm 6:4). Furthermore, the risen Christ is the principle and source of our future resurrection: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep […] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:20-22).

It is true that Christ will raise us up on the last day; but it is also true that, in a certain way, we have already risen with Christ. In Baptism, actually, we are immersed in the death and resurrection of Christ and sacramentally assimilated to him: “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12). United with Christ by Baptism, we already truly participate in the life of the risen Christ (cf. Eph 2:6).

Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning. The Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the Church: “Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven”.[2] By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. In our own day also, the Church is called to proclaim her faith in the resurrection: “The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead; believing this we live”.[3]

3. Following the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places.[4]

In memory of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord, the mystery that illumines the Christian meaning of death,[5] burial is above all the most fitting way to express faith and hope in the resurrection of the body.[6]

The Church who, as Mother, has accompanied the Christian during his earthly pilgrimage, offers to the Father, in Christ, the child of her grace, and she commits to the earth, in hope, the seed of the body that will rise in glory.[7]

By burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body,[8] and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity.[9] She cannot, therefore, condone attitudes or permit rites that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration, or as the definitive liberation from the “prison” of the body.

Furthermore, burial in a cemetery or another sacred place adequately corresponds to the piety and respect owed to the bodies of the faithful departed who through Baptism have become temples of the Holy Spirit and in which “as instruments and vessels the Spirit has carried out so many good works”.[10]

Tobias, the just, was praised for the merits he acquired in the sight of God for having buried the dead,[11] and the Church considers the burial of dead one of the corporal works of mercy.[12]

Finally, the burial of the faithful departed in cemeteries or other sacred places encourages family members and the whole Christian community to pray for and remember the dead, while at the same time fostering the veneration of martyrs and saints.

Through the practice of burying the dead in cemeteries, in churches or their environs, Christian tradition has upheld the relationship between the living and the dead and has opposed any tendency to minimize, or relegate to the purely private sphere, the event of death and the meaning it has for Christians.

4. In circumstances when cremation is chosen because of sanitary, economic or social considerations, this choice must never violate the explicitly-stated or the reasonably inferable wishes of the deceased faithful. The Church raises no doctrinal objections to this practice, since cremation of the deceased’s body does not affect his or her soul, nor does it prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life. Thus cremation, in and of itself, objectively negates neither the Christian doctrine of the soul’s immortality nor that of the resurrection of the body.[13]

The Church continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased. Nevertheless, cremation is not prohibited, “unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine”.[14]

In the absence of motives contrary to Christian doctrine, the Church, after the celebration of the funeral rite, accompanies the choice of cremation, providing the relevant liturgical and pastoral directives, and taking particular care to avoid every form of scandal or the appearance of religious indifferentism.

5. When, for legitimate motives, cremation of the body has been chosen, the ashes of the faithful must be laid to rest in a sacred place, that is, in a cemetery or, in certain cases, in a church or an area, which has been set aside for this purpose, and so dedicated by the competent ecclesial authority.

From the earliest times, Christians have desired that the faithful departed become the objects of the Christian community’s prayers and remembrance. Their tombs have become places of prayer, remembrance and reflection. The faithful departed remain part of the Church who believes “in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church”.[15]

The reservation of the ashes of the departed in a sacred place ensures that they are not excluded from the prayers and remembrance of their family or the Christian community. It prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten, or their remains from being shown a lack of respect, which eventuality is possible, most especially once the immediately subsequent generation has too passed away. Also it prevents any unfitting or superstitious practices.

6. For the reasons given above, the conservation of the ashes of the departed in a domestic residence is not permitted. Only in grave and exceptional cases dependent on cultural conditions of a localized nature, may the Ordinary, in agreement with the Episcopal Conference or the Synod of Bishops of the Oriental Churches, concede permission for the conservation of the ashes of the departed in a domestic residence. Nonetheless, the ashes may not be divided among various family members and due respect must be maintained regarding the circumstances of such a conservation.

7. In order that every appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism be avoided, it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects. These courses of action cannot be legitimized by an appeal to the sanitary, social, or economic motives that may have occasioned the choice of cremation.

8. When the deceased notoriously has requested cremation and the scattering of their ashes for reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied to that person according to the norms of the law.[16]

The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, in the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect on 18 March 2016, approved the present Instruction, adopted in the Ordinary Session of this Congregation on 2 March 2016, and ordered its publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 15 August 2016, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Gerhard Card. Müller
Prefect

+ Luis F. Ladaria, S.I.
Titular Archbishop of Thibica
Secretary


[1] AAS 56 (1964), 822-823.

[2] Roman Missal, Preface I for the Dead.

[3] Tertullian, De Resurrectione carnis, 1,1: CCL 2, 921.

[4] Cf. CIC, can. 1176, § 3, can. 1205; CCEO, can. 876, § 3; can. 868.

[5] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1681.

[6] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2300.

[7] Cf. 1 Cor 15:42-44; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1683.

[8] Cf. St. Augustine, De cura pro mortuis gerenda, 3, 5; CSEL 41, 628:

[9] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 14.

[10] St. Augustine, De cura pro mortuis gerenda, 3, 5: CSEL 41, 627.

[11] Cf. Tb 2:9; 12:12.

[12] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2300.

[13] Cf. Holy Office, Instruction Piam et costantem, 5 July 1963: AAS 56 (1964) 822.

[14] CIC, can. 1176 § 3; cf. CCEC, can. 876 § 3.

[15]Catechism of the Catholic Church, 962.

[16]CIC, can. 1184; CCEO, can.876, § 3.