Another question on miscarriage

[Bonnie]

When I lost my first child to miscarriage at 2 months, we were not allowed a funeral, space in the cemetary or anything. We ended up burying our baby on our own property. When we moved, I couldn’t just leave it there, so we dug it up & reburied on our new property. (Good reason for cemeteries!)

That was almost 20 years ago. Has anything changed in Church teaching to reflect our belief that babies are human during the first 9 months?

 

[Jan_Wakelin]

I do not know why you were not permitted to bury your child. I can explain, however, why you could not have a Catholic funeral rite for your child, provided your child died before 1983.

In the old Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1917 and in force until 1983, Canon 1239 §1 stated:
“Those who die without baptism are not to be accorded ecclesiastical burial.”

Fortunately, the law has changed. In the new Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983 and currently in force, Canon 1183 §2 states:
“The local ordinary can permit children to be given ecclesiastical funeral rites if their parents intended to baptize them but they died before their baptism.”