Funeral refused over money dispute

by Michael Shackleton · July 15, 2012

Do we have to consult our parish priest with regard to which funeral parlour he would like us to use? A local priest refused to conduct a funeral for an elderly Catholic woman because he claimed the undertakers who her funeral policy was with, owed him money. She was buried from a non-Catholic church! �Concerned Catholic

"...denying her a Catholic funeral was unjust and clumsy, and even seriously offensive pastoral practice..."

Canon Law (c1184) specifies a number of grave reasons why a Catholic may be refused a church funeral. A priest�s squabble with an undertaker is certainly not one of them. In fact, canon 530.5 lists the conducting of parishioners� funerals as one of the duties entrusted to the parish priest.

It would not be normal for a parish priest to restrict the number of undertakers that he and his parishioners would deal with. If the undertaker owed money, one has to ask to whom? Was it to the priest himself personally or was it to the parish finances?

If it had something to do with his personal dealings with the undertaker, he would be wrong to refuse a Catholic burial to one of his parishioners who would have had no part in that problem.

If the undertaker owed money to the parish itself, it seems that the priest was still rash to act in the way you describe. The person who handles the parish accounts should be the one to negotiate with the undertaker to urge repayment of the debt. Otherwise the priest should have done so.

Either way, the deceased had no part in this squabble, and denying her a Catholic funeral was unjust and clumsy, and even seriously offensive pastoral practice, because of the negative effect this would have on the woman�s family and friends.

From what you say, one has to ask why the priest, seemingly without notice and at the last minute, abruptly refused to bury the woman. Was there some sort of breakdown in communication between undertaker, family and priest?

When arranging with a priest to conduct a parishioner�s funeral service, the name of the undertaker is generally mentioned, or as sometimes happens, the undertaker contacts the priest to fix dates and times. So I suspect a severe lack of effective communication here.

Not knowing more details, I cannot comment further.