Funeral service only belongs in church building according to Catholic Church

In Belgium currently priests or deacons are leading forty percent of all funerals in crematoria. That looks for the Roman Catholic Church a thorn in the eye because they also see a part of their income dwindle.

In 1963 the Vatican lifted the prohibition against cremation but it still took many years before the Belgian curry was willing to accept cremation as a respectful alternative for burial. In 1983 a new revision of Canon Law replaced the 1917 Code. The new revision allowed both cremation and burial as means of honouring the body of a deceased Catholic. Last year there were for the first time more cremations (55,741) than ecclesiastical funerals.

André Léonard

Archbishop André Léonard would supposedly have nothing against cremation. Spokesman of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Jeroen Moens says:

“He just thinks that if people want a Christian funeral, then they have to come to church. ‘

According to him it is not a decision against the crematoria, but a decision before the Church.

“Believers do have to come to church if they want a priest for the funeral of their loved one.”

Tommy Scholtes spokesman for the Belgian bishops says that one must take more time to come together and to pray.

“Unfortunately, our official permission to send pastors to crematoria has gotten out of hand. It was never intended that our priests and deacons would have to do full funerals over there. The intention was to say only a farewell prayer.     Now sometimes we get the impression that the priests and deacons are employees of the crematoria. “

According to the Catholic leaders in Belgium prayer should be limited to the church building and not being offered in any other public building. One can ask the question what right the institution of the Roman Catholic Church has to have their parish only praying in the church building. Why do they find it not appropriate for people to come together in any place to pray with each other or to listen together to religious texts or to readings from the Bible? To them a service for god can only be offered rightly in the church-building by the priest or deacon. They do not accept that prayer services are performed in the living room or in a public place other than the traditional church building .

The ministry by a priest or deacon in a crematorium is no longer allowed from 2015 onwards. Though the church would love to see already now that everything would be done to get the people to go back to the church (read churchbuilding and church setting).

” The place for a Christian service is the church (read churchbuilding) and nowhere else .”

The Catholic Church claims that the churchbulding has always been a place of prayer, but overlook that in the early time of Christianity people came together in their own houses, making house churches. They also forget that God wants to have everybody to carry the love of God in him and to share it at home with all around them, at home and in every place, and that the own house was the main daily spot where prayers were done. They also forget that it has never been Christ intention to isolate the prayer from the personal environment of the people or have service of God only be done at a certain place of prayer, whether it be a ‘ synagogue ‘ or even less a “church.”

Inside of the Roman Catholic Church in Győrvár (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s been already a great difficulty that since last year more people opted for a cremation or a traditional burial . That the crematoria there at once also provide service to provide a priest is not at all to the liking of the Catholic church leadership. About the forbidding of priest and deacons to offer their services to the crematoria the spokesman of the crematoria says:

“That the Church wants to attract more people we understand, but this is not the right decision.”

It can be assured that the crematoria now will look for their own staff to provide for a farewell service. In such instance we can wonder how much tradition, paganism and culture will intermingle. In such instance you may also wonder how many proper Biblical texts will be applied. Or it could be that the person in charge will be tapered on certain Biblical texts and reading them in a dignified manner, shall be closer to the Biblical truth than a service in the Catholic Church building. In that case, certainly the people will hear the Word of God and so not the word of the Catholic Church.

Clearly the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments wants former freedoms in the service celebrations scaling back and let the people feel again who is boss in the Church. The Roman Curia looks back to a fully verifiable implementation of the post and wants to have complete control over the way in which people want to externalize their faith.
That “the Congregation Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum ‘now appears to regain more power by that fifth primate or metropolitan of Belgium and wants to control religious life again in Belgium to be sure that its role to monitor the valid and lawful administration of the sacraments can remain intact.

+

Find additional reading:

1. A Society pleading poverty
2. Feeling-good, search for hapiness and the church
3. Manifests for believers #1 Sex abuse setting fire to the powder
4. Manifests for believers #2 Changing celibacy requirement
5. Manifests for believers #3 Catholic versus Protestant
6. People are turning their back on Christianity
7. What is the Catholic teaching concerning cremation?
8. Changing Catholic Attitudes about Cremation
   While full-body burial remains the Church’s preferred choice, there are practical reasons for cremation. Cost is one; cremation can shave thousands off the $6,000-8,000 cost of burial. Another is that families can inter cremated remains in family plots, which have limited space. Some argue it is a more ecologically-friendly choice, Williams said, as less open space and materials are required for cremation.
9. Cremation: New Options for Catholics
   The pastor explained to them that the Catholic Church did not allow cremated remains to be present in church during the celebration of a funeral liturgy. The Catholic Church has always had the utmost respect and reverence for the human body and the prayers of the funeral liturgy reflect this.
   +
   The Catholic Church’s practice of burial goes back to early Christian days. A strong belief in the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, as well as the belief in the resurrection of the body, support the Church’s continued reverence for the human body. From early Christian days cremation was viewed as a pagan practice and a denial of the doctrine of the Resurrection. That’s why cremation was expressly forbidden by the Catholic Church until recent years.
10. Cremation Ashes to Ashes
    Catholic burial practice calls for the cremains to be buried in an urn within a consecrated grave or placed inside a mausoleum. Keeping ashes at home or scattering them on land or sea, even where legal, is inappropriate to the Church’s deep reverence for the body as a place where the soul has resided, As “Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia” notes:
    “Cremation was the normal custom in the ancient civilized world, except in Egypt, Judea and China. It was repugnant to early Christians because of the belief in the resurrection of the body. By the fifth century, cremation had been largely abandoned in the Roman Empire because of Christian influence.”
11. Does the church forbid cremation
    The new <Code of Canon Law> (1983) stipulates, “The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the dead be observed; it does not, however, forbid cremation unless it has been chosen for reasons which are contrary to Christian teaching” (No. 1176, 3). Therefore, a person may choose to be cremated if he has the right intention. However, the cremated remains must be treated with respect and should be interred in a grave or columbarium.
    A pastoral problem occurs concerning the funeral Mass itself. The cremated remains can not be present during the vigil or wake service, or during the Mass, since the regular liturgical prayers and actions are designed to honor the body. The body best reminds us of that person who entered a new life at baptism, becoming a “Temple of the Lord,” and has now gone, we hope and pray, to the fulfillment of that life and eternal rest. On the other hand, ashes remind us of the corruptibility of the deceased.
12. Frequently Asked Questions regarding Cremation in the Catholic Church
    The Catholic Church’s rejection of cremation was never intended to imply that someone who is cremated would never go to heaven. The church has never opposed the cremation of Catholics after disasters such as a plague, earthquakes or floods when mass casualties occurred, making individual burials next to impossible.
    +
13. To this day, the Catholic Church Law forbids cremation when it is chosen for reasons that are contrary to Christian teaching. These are:
    a. Cremation is implemented for the purpose of denying the ressurection of the body.
    b. The ashes of cremated Catholics are to be preserved afterwards as a body would be preserved, either in a mausoleum or buried in a Catholic cemetary which is holy grounds.
14. c. Ashes are not to be scattered.

+++

Related articles

• Do Catholic Priests in the Military ‘Risk Being Arrested’ if They Minister and Hold Mass During the Gov’t Shutdown? (theblaze.com)
  In an op-ed published on Thursday, John Schlageter, general counsel at Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, a group that oversees military the services provided by the Catholic Church in the U.S., made some startling claims about how the government shut-down could impact priests — and the allegations are chilling.

  According to Schlageter, Catholic priests who are contracted risk being arrested if they work during the shutdown.

• Contract Priests Threatened With Arrest If They Minister On Military Bases During Shutdown (breitbart.com)In an oped for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, John Schlageter, the General Counsel for the Archdiocese made a stunning allegation. He claims that some priests could face arrest if they minister (say Mass, marry, bury or baptize)  to Catholics on US military bases around  the world – a real problem for many Catholics with Sunday only a couple of days away.  – See more at: http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/10/04/Contract-Priests-Threatened-With-Arrest-If-They-Minister-On-Military-Bases-During-Shutdown#sthash.HB461Ny4.dpuf
• Outrageous: Belgium court throws out 39 child sex abuse accusations against the Catholic Church, claim Holy See is protected by international law! (vaticancrimes.us)
  This past Tuesday, a Belgian court dared to reject a rare attempt at a child sex class-action suit against the Catholic Church filed back in 2011 by 39 victims of priests and Catholic church workers.
  The court in Ghent said the Holy See, which represents the Pope and the Vatican government, “is considered to be a state protected by international law that cannot be judged by a foreign court”.
  Vatican lawyers had pleaded that line before the court, arguing the Holy See’s immunity could not be questioned.

  In what at the time was said to be the first lawsuit in Europe against the Holy See, dozens of victims of a child sex scandal in the Belgian Catholic church summoned Catholic authorities to appear before the court for failing to stop the abuse.

• 4.000 skeletons in crypt in Roman Catholic Church in Rome (barbedol03.wordpress.com)
  After publishing several articles about Roman Catholic adoration and veneration of bones, skulls and corpses, I decided to take a break to look into other matters.
• Catholic Chaplains Won’t Bury Married Gay Soldiers (bilerico.com)
  “No Catholic priest or deacon may be forced by any authority to witness or bless the union of couples of the same gender. No Catholic priest or deacon can be obliged to assist at a [marriage counseling retreat] if that gathering is also open to couples of the same gender…

  “Participation in retirements, changes of command, and promotion ceremonies is possible, as long as the priest is not required to acknowledge or approve of a ‘spouse’ of the same gender.

  “While the tradition of the Catholic Church always tries to find reasons to bury the dead, a priest may not be placed in a situation where his assistance at a funeral for a Catholic would give the impression that the Church approves of same sex ‘marital’ relationships.”

• Did The Catholic Church Hatch The Blasphemous Heresy of “Life Begins At Conception” For Sexual Reasons? (xbjllb.typepad.com)
  Did the Catholic Church hatch the blasphemous heretical heresy of “Life Begins At Conception” because they were afraid their stable of boys would decrease exponentially by contraception and abortion?
• Catholic Church makes history with ordination of lay deacons (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
  History was made in the Archdiocese of Armagh yesterday when the Primate of All Ireland ordained the first five Catholics to become permanent deacons in the ancient see of St Patrick.
  +
  Welcoming the five men, all married with children, into the ministry, Archbishop of Armagh Cardinal Sean Brady described it as an occasion of “great joy”.

  Addressing 700 family members, priests and the Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Eamon Martin, described the five as bridge builders between the laity, priests and bishops.

• Jailed deacon slams Dominican Catholic Church’s “degenerate” priesthood (dominicantoday.com)
  Francisco Javier Occis Reyes, a Catholic Church deacon being held on charges of the sexual abuse of a minor, on Saturday revealed  that he provided the names of other pedophiles priests to authorities.The revelations come in the wake of international repercussions from the child abuse cases of Catholic priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto), and ousted Vatican envoy Jozef Wesolowski, both Polish nationals. The Catholic Church recently tried to make a deal with New South Wales Police that could have put an end to the investigation into pedophile priests; this would have caused investigators to be in violation of the Crimes Act. Police records show two separate attempts to make a deal to allow new ways for the church to handle complaints of sexual and physical abuse. This news comes just six months after Pope Francis I made subtle demands to hold priests who have committed these crimes accountable for their actions. These were among the first of many clues that the Catholic Church may begin to change its longstanding practices and policies. As the details from New South Wales emerge, these may shed some light on how the new Pope will guide and instruct the church hierarchy, regarding the commission, investigation and prosecution of criminal acts committed within the church.

  For years there have been allegations made against the Catholic church of sexual and physical abuse.  In February of this year, the archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the United States, was ordered by the court to release some 12,000 records proving that acts of pedophilia had occurred in the Catholic Church. The documents also alleged that the abusive priests had been protected by the church. Though this particular scandal arose in Los Angeles, the real culprit is still and always has been the Vatican in Rome. With a new Pope standing a little more firmly with his understanding of right from wrong however, there may soon be changes made in the handling of these crimes. The Vatican seems to be undergoing a much needed internal renovation.

• Australia: Catholic Church tried to get the Police to withhold critical information about criminal Priests (vaticancrimes.us)
  The nations are beginning to see the true face of the Catholic Church and all their dirty ploys they scheme to continue committing crimes and covering it up. So  far, over 10 million crimes committed by the Vatican and have been documented in a report: http://jh.to/organizedcrime, yet priests continue to use their favorite line to deviate attention from the astronomical numbers of clergy victims by saying: “”One bad apple seems to spoil the bunch sometimes.”