Chapter — 1917 Code of Canon Law
Chapter III: Of Those to Whom Ecclesiastical Burial Is to Be Granted or Denied
Superseded as law in 1983 — read why this Code still matters. Each canon links to its 1983 counterpart.
§ 1. Those who have died without baptism are not to be admitted to ecclesiastical burial.
§ 2. Catechumens who die without baptism through no fault of their own are to be counted among the baptized.
§ 3. All baptized persons are to be endowed with ecclesiastical burial, unless they are expressly deprived of the same by law.
§ 1. Ad sepulturam ecclesiasticam non sunt admittendi qui sine baptismo decesserint.
§ 2. Catechumeni qui nulla sua culpa sine baptismo moriantur, baptizatis accensendi sunt.
§ 3. Omnes baptizati sepultura ecclesiastica donandi sunt, nisi eadem a iure expresse priventur.
§ 1. The following are deprived of ecclesiastical burial, unless before death they have given some signs of penitence:
1° Notorious apostates from the Christian faith, or those notoriously attached to a heretical or schismatic sect, or to a masonic sect or other societies of the same kind.
2° Excommunicated or interdicted persons after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence.
3° Those who killed themselves by deliberate counsel.
4° Those dead in a duel or from a wound received from it.
5° Those who ordered that their body be handed over to cremation.
6° Other public and manifest sinners.
§ 2. If in the aforesaid cases some doubt occurs, the Ordinary is to be consulted if time permits; if doubt remains, the corpse is to be handed over to ecclesiastical burial, yet in such a way that scandal is removed.
§ 1. Ecclesiastica sepultura privantur, nisi ante mortem aliqua dederint poenitentiae signa:
1° Notorii apostatae a christiana fide, aut sectae haereticae vel schismaticae aut sectae massonicae aliisve eiusdem generis societatibus notorie addicti;
2° Excommunicati vel interdicti post sententiam condemnatoriam vel declaratoriam;
3° Qui se ipsi occiderint deliberato consilio;
4° Mortui in duello aut ex vulnere inde relato;
5° Qui mandaverint suum corpus cremationi tradi;
6° Alii peccatores publici et manifesti.
§ 2. Occurrente praedictis in casibus aliquo dubio, consulatur, si tempus sinat, Ordinarius; permanente dubio, cadaver sepulturae ecclesiasticae tradatur, ita tamen ut removeatur scandalum.
1983 Code correlation: can. 1184
When someone has been excluded from ecclesiastical burial, there are also to be denied both any funeral Mass, even anniversary Mass, and other public funeral offices.
Excluso ab ecclesiastica sepultura deneganda quoque sunt tum quaelibet Missa exsequialis, etiam anniversaria, tum alia publica officia funebria.
1983 Code correlation: can. 1185