About Rev. Dennis W. Meinen Expertise I prefer answering questions that a typical parishioner in a typical parish asks.
Experience I was ordained to the priesthood in 1987. One year later I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I am chaplain at a Catholic retirement/nursing home. I have a scooter (With the help of the Veterans) so I?m never at a desk! I am also involved in the Diocesan Office of Ministry to Persons With Disabilities and serve at our Catholic Hospital doing night call usually once a week. I write a column on disability for our Catholic newspaper and I try to tell how people can overcome obstacles to their disability. I freely admit to everyone that the ways of God are sometimes mysterious, but exciting. Why did God call me to the priesthood, yet will that this disability be part of it? St. Theresa told God that "It's no wonder that You don't have many friends, what with the way You treat them!" According to my human finite reasoning, I could serve God a lot better (and longer) if I was cured. But then I remember that St. Paul said that Jesus told him, ?In weakness power reaches perfection, because you?re strong in the Lord!?
Question I wanted to know whether a person who is a Catholic but has not gone to the Church (for a very long time)for the holy mass without sufficient reasons, can be given a proper funeral according to the Catholic Church
Answer Bryan,
Step #1 Why not see a priest and return to the Church?
Did you mean to say "A proper burial in a Catholic cemetery? That can happen, regardless of religion.
It is only natural that those who share the same faith in life will wish to carry on that sense of community in death. When it comes to the issue of death, the sensibilities and needs of Catholics are unique and call for certain practices in the handling and care of the remains of the deceased. Therefore, in the blessed grounds of a Catholic cemetery there are safeguards – mandated by the Church’s Canon Law – which guarantee permanence, reverence and respect for the remains of the deceased.
As a rule, Catholic funeral rites, including a Catholic Mass, are for Catholic persons, who have the right to a church funeral by law (canon 1176.1). This generally holds true even if, at the time of death, the deceased person wasn't a regularly practicing Catholic. Elderly persons and other shut-ins, for example, who would perhaps be attending Mass regularly if they were physically able to get there, can be buried with Catholic funeral rites from the local Catholic parish. This holds true even if the pastor there had never before been made aware of the shut-in's presence within the boundaries of his parish! The deceased needn't have been a registered or contributing member of a parish to be entitled to a Catholic funeral.
The Church may, and occasionally does, refuse Catholic funeral rites to Catholics in certain specific situations. Catholics who have publicly embraced heretical beliefs, or who are "manifest sinners," such as members of violent gangs and organized-crime rings who are widely known to the public as such, are to be denied a Catholic funeral, if having one would cause public scandal among the Catholic faithful (canon 1184.1). The theological presumption behind the law here is that people who may have been raised as Catholics, but who have publicly accepted non-Catholic teachings or engaged in ongoing immoral activity, have in effect removed themselves from the Church. Holding a Catholic funeral Mass for such people may give the appearance that the Church is sanctioning their conduct, or attaching little importance to it — and the Church wishes to avoid sending such a message to Catholics at large.
At times this may require the pastor of a parish to make a difficult judgment call. Faced with grieving family members who are insisting that they want a funeral Mass for the deceased, a priest must act with great pastoral sensitivity, though without contradicting church discipline. If he is unsure how best to deal with the situation, he is to consult the bishop and follow his decision (canon 1184.2).
We have seen that the Church can, in certain instances, refuse Catholic funeral rites to Catholics who have effectively ceased to live their faith. But can the Church provide a Catholic funeral for a person who may have led an upright life, but who was never a member of the Catholic Church?
Canon 1183.3 provides a clear answer. A baptized person from a non-Catholic church may be permitted to have Catholic funeral rites, if (a) a minister from his own church is unavailable; (b) the diocesan bishop does not disapprove; and (c) the deceased person did not give any indication during life that he did not want such a funeral.
