Refusal of Catholic Funerals?

[Laye]

We have a new priest and we are his very first parish. A Catholic community member has passed and he will not do the funeral because she was not a practicing Catholic.
Did our priest make the right decision based on church practices? If so, how do I defend our priest when others are criticizing this?

BTW, an older priest in the community has agreed to do the funeral.

Thank you

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Code of Canon Law:

Can. 1176 §1. Deceased members of the Christian faithful must be given ecclesiastical funerals according to the norm of law.

The Rites of Christian Burial are considered a right of the baptized according to canon 1176. Note that the canon says they “must” be given a church funeral. “Must” is not a word canon law usually casually, it implies a right or an obligation.

This right is not an absolute however, there are a few conditions that qualify for a refusal of the rites of burial:

Can. 1184 §1. Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death, the following must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals:

3/ other manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.

§2. If any doubt occurs, the local ordinary is to be consulted, and his judgment must be followed.

Canon 1184 gives situations in which someone is to be deprived of a right. Such canons must be interpreted strictly (canon 18).
If this individual qualified as a “manifest sinner” who did not repent then the funeral rites would have been refused outright and no priest would be able to celebrate the funeral.

Each situation has its unique set of factors that need to be weighed. A baptized Catholic has a right to a Catholic funeral unless his/her funeral would definitively be a scandal to other Catholics. The Rites of Christian Burial are not a reward for a good life, they are the sacrifice of the Eucharist and prayers offered for the forgiveness of the sins of the deceased. Burying and praying for the dead is an act of mercy (Catechism #2447). We should not refuse acts of mercy (or canonical rights) without justification.

Of course, we must also be careful about gossip. Sometimes things get twisted out of context. Its possible that the priest had a conflict in his schedule and said he wasn’t available at that day/time and someone made his/her own assumptions regarding the priest’s motivations which may not be true at all.