Funerals: Must the Body be Present?
(Photo: Mayron Oliveira/unsplash)
Answered by Bishop Sylvester David OMI –
Question: I have always been taught that during a funeral service or Mass, it is necessary for the body to be present. I now hear that ashes are acceptable. Is this due to the Covid pandemic, and will the rule revert when the pandemic ends?
Answer: The norm is for the body to be present at the Requiem Mass or funeral service. As Catholics, we have ways of bidding farewell to the faithful departed. Occasionally a service without the body being present is permissible, for example in cases of death on a battlefield, an earthquake, or a similar disaster where it is physically impossible for the body to be present. A burial at sea will also fall into this category.
During the initial stages of the Covid pandemic — bearing in mind that there was no “dress rehearsal” for our responses to Covid deaths — neither the Church nor the undertakers knew what the safety protocols were regarding funerals. We relied on what we assumed to be the safest practices. We have subsequently learned that Covid cannot be transmitted by a corpse, and with the usual social distancing and other safety protocols we now have funerals with the body in the church.
The Book of Rites refers to honouring “the body of the deceased as a temple of the Holy Spirit” and presumes the presence of the body. One could argue that the ashes do constitute mortal remains, but doing the ritual with the ashes instead of the body seems to go against established practice.
Asked and answered in the January 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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