Funeral on Sunday

[gunnerz]

I am under the impression that Catholic funerals are not supposed to take place on Sunday. Is this true? If so, why is that?

 

[James0235]

I am under the impression that Catholic funerals are not supposed to take place on Sunday. Is this true? If so, why is that?

A Funeral Mass may occur on a Sunday but not on every Sunday:

**Among the Masses for the Dead, the Funeral Mass holds first place. It may be celebrated on any day except for Solemnities that are holy days of obligation, Holy Thursday, the Easter Triduum, and the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter, with due regard also for all the other requirements of the norm of the law.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal 380**

James

 

[malphono]

I’ve no idea what the current practice in the Latin Church is, but in pre-conciliar times, at least, funerals were not permitted on any Sunday. The reasoning was/is very simple: Sunday was/is always considered a solemnity since it is the memorial of the Resurrection. Rarely does another feast take precedence over Sunday. Certain Holy Days, e.g. Christmas, Ascension, etc, can if they happen to fall on a Sunday, but beyond those few, the Sunday always takes precedence.

FWIW, and while I’m not sure about the rest of the East and Orient, the same is true in the Syriac Churches. The tradition there is that there is no Mass for a funeral; rather, there is a specific Office for the Departed which is celebrated with full solemnity, and even that is not done on Sundays. The Mass in memory of the departed is traditionally offered on the 40th day. (In modern practice, some of the Syriac Churches emulate the Latin practice and have a funeral Mass which includes some parts of the traditional Office of the Departed. But of course, it’s never done on a Sunday.)

 

[Joannm]

We don’t do funerals on SUnday basically because there is no time to do them with masses going until 1:00, baptisms at 2:00, maybe a wedding, and the last mass at 5:00. There has to be time in between to prepare for these liturgies. Also the cemeteries are closed on Sunday so if you have a funeral you have to bring the body back to the funeral parlor for burial on Monday or another day.

 

[EasterJoy]

The restriction is on Masses for the Dead. Internment accompanied by the usual graveside ceremonies may be performed on days when a Funeral Mass would not be allowed.

 

[frindro]

maybe a wedding,

I don’t want to be off-topic, but shouldn’t weddings be on Saturday?

 

[Phemie]

I don’t want to be off-topic, but shouldn’t weddings be on Saturday?

Weddings can be any day, although the Church discourages Sundays and a Nuptial Mass is usually not allowed. If you do marry on Sunday it’s supposed to be the Mass of the day although you can usually have one of the readings from the Nuptial Mass and the Nuptial Blessing is allowed.

 

[benedictgal]

Weddings can be any day, although the Church discourages Sundays and a Nuptial Mass is usually not allowed. If you do marry on Sunday it’s supposed to be the Mass of the day although you can usually have one of the readings from the Nuptial Mass and the Nuptial Blessing is allowed.

However, I believe that this mostly works for Ordinary Time. If the wedding occurs during Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter, then the readings of the day should be used if it happens to be after 4PM on a Saturday. The same would hold true of the wedding occured during a Holy Day of Obligation, I believe.

 

[puzzleannie]

a practical reason is probably that most cemeteries would charge extra to have their crews available on Sunday, or would not do it at all, but of course there could be a funeral Mass not followed immediately by the interment (but returning the casket to the funeral home will add to the expense of the whole funeral).

the other reason besides the canon law stipulations is also practical, there is simply no time in most parishes, and priests are limited as to the number of Masses they may celebrate in one day, most are already pushing the window.