Hello Fr.,
I noticed this "Do you have a question about the faith" on your parish web site and know you are trying to be faithful and share the "fullness of the truth". Maybe you can't address this as it isn't really a question I know how to ask directly. Perhaps you could suggest something I could read ...maybe a church document I'm not aware of.
I have been thinking about all of the public figures who are publicly dissenting Catholics many of whom are pro abortion and are aging and what will happen when we have their funerals. These are big public events sometimes for the very notable figures. Ted Kennedy's current illness brought this to mind recently as his name is on one of the health care bills being considered now. It was also very public recently when he sent a letter to Pope Benedict which was hand delivered by Obama. I know a funeral is not a sacrament but according to the church teachings what is the right thing in these instances. I can already see many of the public catholic figures receiving communion at the funeral but even the funeral itself. Can you shed any light on these situations. What is the right thing according to church teaching. I know I will say a prayer when each one dies for the repose of their soul but I just have been wondering.
Thank you for your faithfulness and God bless all your efforts to share the fullness of the truth with us.
Patty
Patty,
First, as a side issue I would urge you to spell Church with a capital C. Apart from being a proper noun for the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church which subsists in the Catholic Church it also shows our realization that the Church is something very specific and different from the Protestant understanding of church. I trust that this is already your understanding.
Otherwise, as to the question at hand, Canon 1184. 1 of the Code of Canon Law states: Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death, the following must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals:
1. notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics;...
2. other manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.
Arguably, many would put those who publicly support abortion as a positive good into the first category. These are the same persons who many say should be denied Holy Communion (provided certain steps have first been taken) because they fit the characterization of canon 915.
Canon 915 states: Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.
If such persons were in fact excommunicated and showed no signs of repentance before death then it would clearly not be an issue to deny them an ecclesiastical funeral. Lacking this one could deny them an ecclesiastical funeral based upon their status as manifest grave sinners. This has been the case with Italian-Catholic members of the mafia such as John Gotti (if not him then some other similar character). He was a baptized Catholic and also an unrepentant manifest grave sinner. However, while many feel that pro-abortion politicians fit the category of manifest grave sinners (myself included) there are many others who are reluctant to make such a characterization. Keep in mind that the scandal involved with giving manifest grave sinners an ecclesiastical funeral is not simply the shock at the act (for clearly there are those who would be "shocked" that pro-abortion Catholics would be denied a funeral just as with the denial of Holy Communion). Scandal also is the approbation that something is acceptable when in fact it is not, thus the scandal of an ecclesiastical funeral or the giving of Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians gives the impression that support for abortion is good, or at least not wrong.
Should unrepentant manifest grave sinners such as Catholic pro-abortion politicians be denied an ecclesiastical funeral? I say yes for they are arguably responsible for many more deaths than the mafia. What's more, they present it as a good which even the mafia does not the audacity to proclaim. However, considering that so few are willing to deny them Holy Communion I suspect that they will not be denied an ecclesiastical funeral either. As you said, say a prayer for the repose of their souls.
Fr. Pisut
I noticed this "Do you have a question about the faith" on your parish web site and know you are trying to be faithful and share the "fullness of the truth". Maybe you can't address this as it isn't really a question I know how to ask directly. Perhaps you could suggest something I could read ...maybe a church document I'm not aware of.
I have been thinking about all of the public figures who are publicly dissenting Catholics many of whom are pro abortion and are aging and what will happen when we have their funerals. These are big public events sometimes for the very notable figures. Ted Kennedy's current illness brought this to mind recently as his name is on one of the health care bills being considered now. It was also very public recently when he sent a letter to Pope Benedict which was hand delivered by Obama. I know a funeral is not a sacrament but according to the church teachings what is the right thing in these instances. I can already see many of the public catholic figures receiving communion at the funeral but even the funeral itself. Can you shed any light on these situations. What is the right thing according to church teaching. I know I will say a prayer when each one dies for the repose of their soul but I just have been wondering.
Thank you for your faithfulness and God bless all your efforts to share the fullness of the truth with us.
Patty
Patty,
First, as a side issue I would urge you to spell Church with a capital C. Apart from being a proper noun for the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church which subsists in the Catholic Church it also shows our realization that the Church is something very specific and different from the Protestant understanding of church. I trust that this is already your understanding.
Otherwise, as to the question at hand, Canon 1184. 1 of the Code of Canon Law states: Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death, the following must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals:
1. notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics;...
2. other manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.
Arguably, many would put those who publicly support abortion as a positive good into the first category. These are the same persons who many say should be denied Holy Communion (provided certain steps have first been taken) because they fit the characterization of canon 915.
Canon 915 states: Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.
If such persons were in fact excommunicated and showed no signs of repentance before death then it would clearly not be an issue to deny them an ecclesiastical funeral. Lacking this one could deny them an ecclesiastical funeral based upon their status as manifest grave sinners. This has been the case with Italian-Catholic members of the mafia such as John Gotti (if not him then some other similar character). He was a baptized Catholic and also an unrepentant manifest grave sinner. However, while many feel that pro-abortion politicians fit the category of manifest grave sinners (myself included) there are many others who are reluctant to make such a characterization. Keep in mind that the scandal involved with giving manifest grave sinners an ecclesiastical funeral is not simply the shock at the act (for clearly there are those who would be "shocked" that pro-abortion Catholics would be denied a funeral just as with the denial of Holy Communion). Scandal also is the approbation that something is acceptable when in fact it is not, thus the scandal of an ecclesiastical funeral or the giving of Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians gives the impression that support for abortion is good, or at least not wrong.
Should unrepentant manifest grave sinners such as Catholic pro-abortion politicians be denied an ecclesiastical funeral? I say yes for they are arguably responsible for many more deaths than the mafia. What's more, they present it as a good which even the mafia does not the audacity to proclaim. However, considering that so few are willing to deny them Holy Communion I suspect that they will not be denied an ecclesiastical funeral either. As you said, say a prayer for the repose of their souls.
Fr. Pisut
