Catholic Church Teaching Concerning Funerals and Burials
- Every Catholic or Catechumen (someone in the process of becoming Catholic) is entitled to the Church’s assistance at the time of death.
- Catholic funeral Rites, including the funeral Mass, are permitted for a deceased baptized non-Catholic who might reasonably be presumed to desire or prefer the Catholic Rite. Such a decision would be appropriate when non-Catholics worship regularly in the Catholic Church or identify deeply with the Catholic Church.
- A child who dies before baptism or a stillborn or miscarried child may be given Catholic Funeral Rites if the parents intended to have the child baptized.
- In all situations, the remains of the deceased should receive reverent Christian burial. Remains should never be scattered or kept in personal homes.
- The Church encourages the burial of Catholics in Catholic cemeteries. Burial in the consecrated ground of a Catholic cemetery is a sign of baptismal commitment and gives witness, even in death, to faith in Christ’s Resurrection.
- To foster and respect family bonds, non-Catholic members of Catholic families may be interred in a Catholic cemetery.
- The Fifth Commandment forbids all forms of murder, but we must leave to God’s mercy the judgment of those who commit suicide. Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (No. 2283). For this reason the Church no longer forbids funeral rites or burial to Catholics who have committed suicide.
