Chapter I: Of Cemeteries

§ 1. The corpses of the faithful are to be buried in a cemetery which, according to the rites handed down in approved liturgical books, is blessed, whether by a solemn or a simple blessing given by those of whom in can. 1155, 1156.

§ 2. Corpses are not to be buried in churches, unless there is question of the corpses of residential Bishops, of Abbots or Prelates nullius to be buried in their own church, or of the Roman Pontiff, royal persons, or Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church.

§ 1. It is the right of the Catholic Church to possess her own cemeteries.

§ 2. Wherever this right of the Church is violated and there is no hope that the violation be repaired, local Ordinaries are to take care that cemeteries belonging to civil society be blessed, if those who are usually buried in them are for the greater part Catholics, or at least that Catholics have a space in them, and this blessed, reserved for themselves.

§ 3. If not even this can be obtained, as often as need arises individual graves are to be blessed according to the rites handed down in approved liturgical books.

The things which the canons prescribe concerning the interdict, violation, and reconciliation of churches are also to be applied to cemeteries.

§ 1. Each parish is to have its own cemetery, unless one common to several has been legitimately constituted by the local Ordinary.

§ 2. Exempt religious can have their own cemetery, distinct from the common cemetery.

§ 3. It can also be permitted by the local Ordinary to other moral persons or private families to have a special tomb, placed outside the common cemetery and blessed after the manner of a cemetery.

§ 1. Both in parochial cemeteries, by written permission of the local Ordinary or his delegate, and in the proper cemetery of another moral person, by written permission of the Superior, the faithful can construct particular tombs for themselves and their own; these also, with the consent of the same Ordinary or Superior, they can alienate.

§ 2. Tombs of priests and clerics, where it can be done, are to be separate from tombs of lay persons and situated in a more fitting place; furthermore, where it will have been convenient, some are to be prepared for priests, others for ministers of the Church of inferior order.

§ 3. Even the little bodies of infants, insofar as it can conveniently be done, are to have special burial niches and sepultures separated from others.

Any cemetery is to be suitably enclosed on all sides and cautiously guarded.

Local Ordinaries, pastors, and Superiors to whom it pertains are to beware lest in cemeteries epitaphs, funeral eulogies, and adornments of monuments bear anything before themselves discordant with the Catholic religion and piety.

Besides a blessed cemetery, another place, if it can be had, is likewise to be enclosed and guarded, where those are to be buried to whom ecclesiastical burial is not granted.

No body is to be buried, especially if death has been sudden, unless after a suitable interval of time, which is sufficient for removing entirely every doubt concerning true death.

§ 1. It is not lawful to exhume any corpse anywhere committed to perpetual ecclesiastical burial, unless by permission of the Ordinary.

§ 2. The Ordinary is never to grant permission if the corpse cannot certainly be distinguished from other bodies.