Appendicula: On Ecclesiastical Burial

§ 1. The bodies of the faithful departed are to be buried, their cremation being reproved.

§ 2. If someone has in any way commanded that his body be cremated, it is illicit to execute this will; and if it has been attached to a contract, testament, or any other act, it is to be regarded as if not attached (Can. 1203).

Ecclesiastical burial consists in the transfer of the corpse to the church, the funeral rites celebrated over it in the same, and its deposition in a place legitimately deputed for the faithful departed to be laid away (Can. 1204).

§ 1. The corpses of the faithful are to be buried in a cemetery which, according to the rites handed down in approved liturgical books, has been blessed, whether by a solemn or 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, 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 (Can. 1205).

§ 1. Those who have died without baptism are not to be admitted to ecclesiastical burial.

§ 2. Catechumens who die without baptism by no fault of their own are to be counted among the baptized.

§ 3. All baptized persons are to be given ecclesiastical burial, unless they are expressly deprived of the same by law (Can. 1239).

Question 1. Who, in particular, are to be deprived of ecclesiastical burial?

Resp. § 1. The following are deprived of ecclesiastical burial, unless before death they have given some signs of repentance:

1°. Notorious apostates from the Christian faith, or those notoriously addicted to a heretical or schismatical 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 have killed themselves by deliberate design;

4°. Those dead in a duel or from a wound received from it;

5°. Those who have commanded that their body be handed over to cremation;

6°. Other public and manifest sinners.

§ 2. When some doubt occurs in the aforesaid cases, let the Ordinary be consulted, if time permits; if the doubt remains, let the corpse be handed over to ecclesiastical burial, yet so that scandal be removed (Can. 1240). - Cf. can. 2260, § 2; 2275, n. 4; 2350, § 2.

Ecclesiastical burial is not to be denied if the Parish Priest alone is witness of the repulse and impenitence of the dying person. Indeed rather let him himself take care to remain with the dying person without witnesses when he doubts concerning his conversion, and let him try to bring him to confession, and, if he cannot dispose him, let him conceal this. - Cf. Alberti, De Sepultura Ecclesiastica.

And since ecclesiastical burial is part of the communion of saints, the reason is clear why all these are to be deprived of it; nor are those dying without baptism to be admitted to it, except catechumens, of whom above.

Question 2. What does this denial of ecclesiastical burial import?

Resp. To one excluded from ecclesiastical burial there are also to be denied both any funeral Mass, even anniversary, and other public funeral offices (Can. 1241).

Question 3. Can the corpse of some non-Catholic ever be buried in a Catholic cemetery?

Resp. Concerning this matter it is thus held in the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, n. 389: "According to the mind of the Apostolic See, it is tolerated that in family tombs, namely those which are built as private and peculiar for Catholic families of laymen, the bodies also of non-Catholic blood relatives and relatives by marriage be entombed." But what comes here under family tombs is not easy to define; but both from the word are built, and from common interpretation, a family tomb seems to be a certain crypt (vault) decently adorned, and not some simple part of the earth (a lot) surrounded by marble stones and planted with flowers or shrubs. But that must carefully be attended to, as is clear from a recent declaration of the Congregation of the Holy Office, namely, that this tolerance of the Apostolic See is not positive and absolute, but merely passive for avoiding greater evils. - Cf. Amer. Eccl. Rev., Vol. 1, pp. 113, 266 and following.

Question 4. Can the corpse of some Catholic departed ever be buried in a non-Catholic cemetery?

Resp. By strict law this was prohibited by the Fathers of the First Plenary Council in these words: "We do not will ecclesiastical rites to be employed in the burial of the faithful whenever their bodies are buried in cemeteries of sects; or even in profane cemeteries, when Catholic cemeteries are present." Nevertheless, lest the minds of non-Catholics be alienated from the Church, the rigor of that law was tempered both by the Second Plenary Council and especially by the Third Plenary Council, where n. 318 it is established thus:

"Therefore for guarding against these evils, and for removing all ambiguity from the words of the Fathers: when there is question of the burial of those who were converted to the faith, and whose surviving non-Catholics have a domestic plot in another cemetery; or also of those Catholics who likewise before the law was brought had their own plot, or certainly without any fraud acquired one after the law, we declare that in these cases it is licit for ecclesiastical rites to be employed, whether at home or in church, as often as this has not been interdicted by the Bishop for grave reasons; and we declare besides that the correction of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide concerning the niche to be blessed, and attached to the aforesaid decree, is to be observed also in these cases. These cases excepted, it will never be licit for a rector of souls to employ the said rites in the burial of the faithful in another cemetery, unless by the express permission of the Ordinary."

Question 5. Is it licit to give ecclesiastical burial to the burned ashes of some Catholic departed?

Resp. Negatively, as is openly gathered from the recent Decree concerning cremations of corpses, which was given on the day 19 May 1886 by the Sacred Congregation of the Supreme Roman and Universal Inquisition, and then was approved and confirmed by the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII, who besides willed that the Ordinaries of places "take care that Christ's faithful be opportunely instructed concerning the detestable abuse of burning human bodies, and that with all their strength they deter from it the flock entrusted to them." And the same seems to have to be said of the more recent form of destroying corpses which is called desiccation. But from another Decree given on the day 15 Dec. 1886, as often as there is question of those whose bodies are subjected to cremation not by their own will but by another's, the rites and suffrages of the Church can be employed both at home and in Church, but not all the way to the place of cremation, with scandal removed. But scandal can also be removed if it becomes known that cremation was not chosen by the proper will of the deceased.

Cf. Acta S. Sedis, vol. 19, p. 46 and vol. 25, p. 63. - Amer. Eccl. Review, vol. 4, pp. 15 and following, and vol. 12, p. 499. The same Sacred Congregation declared on 27 July 1892: "it is never licit to cooperate in cremation by mandate or counsel. But material cooperation can sometimes be tolerated provided that: 1°. Cremation is not held as a protest-sign of the masonic sect; 2°. Nothing is contained in it which of itself directly and uniquely expresses reprobation of Catholic doctrine and approbation of the sect; 3°. Nor is it established that officials and workers are bound or called to the work in contempt of the Catholic religion. Besides, although in these cases they are to be left in good faith, they are nevertheless always to be admonished not to intend to cooperate in cremation."

Where the civil government authoritatively hands over the corpses of the dead to cremation, without the deceased, while they lived, having given consent to this, and without their relatives having in any way sought cremation, the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide permitted that in the cited cases funeral ceremonies could be performed with the customary ceremonies in the cemetery. 26 Jan. 1911. - Cf. Nouv. Rev. Théol., v. 43, p. 296. - Analecta Ecclesias., an. 1911, p. 58.¹

¹ Cf. Addenda, p. 1153, n. 129.

Question 6. Are amputated members of Catholics to be buried in a sacred place?

Resp. Affirmatively, according to the response of the Holy Office, 3 Aug. 1897: "Hence, if it can be done, let some small space of earth be deputed in the proper garden attached to the house of the hospitals for these members to be buried, after it has been blessed."

Question 7. "In what way ought the parish priest or priest conduct himself who, called by a man (or Catholic woman) placed in the article of death and already joined with an infidel by a civil bond, finds him almost destitute of senses? When the parish priest has excited him to contrition and has absolved him under condition, can he also admit him to Ecclesiastical burial?"

Resp. In these or similar cases, signs of returning to one's right mind having been made known, ecclesiastical burial can be given, yet with ecclesiastical pomps and solemnities of funerals forbidden. "If in some case extraordinary circumstances concur, let the parish priest consult the Ordinary, and stand by his mandates." S. Off., 6 July 1898.

Question 8. What ought Ordinaries, parish priests, and Superiors to beware of?

Resp. Let the Ordinaries of places, parish priests, and Superiors, to whom it pertains, beware lest in cemeteries epitaphs, funeral praises, and ornaments of monuments bear before themselves anything discordant with Catholic religion and piety (Can. 1211).

This prescription of the greatest moment must be carefully guarded, lest empty ceremonies and worldly praises gradually mingle themselves with the holy rites of the Church.