Last week’s post argued that clearance-based denial of ecclesiastical funeral infringes on the deceased’s ecclesial right as a baptised. Nevertheless, it concluded that before such funerals, the parish priest should consider and adopt a pastoral approach that balances the implications of conducting the funeral on the unity of the Christian community and his own welfare. Those in irregular matrimonial situations form another category topical in Christian funerals in Nigeria. Depending on the situation, they are granted an ecclesiastical funeral conducted by a seminarian or the catechist and without the Mass. In some extreme cases, they are denied any form of Christian funeral. Today’s post examines this practice in Nigeria.
The concept ‘irregular matrimonial situation’ means a condition that does not correspond with the legal definition of marriage with a particular legal system or one not complete as designated in that system. Therefore, considering the diversity of legal systems, irregular matrimonial situations are broad and vary according to legal systems. It also means that what is considered irregular in one legal system may be regular in another.
Nigeria practices legal pluralism, that is, the existence of three legal systems simultaneously: customary law, statutory law, and Islamic law. For Catholics, canon law is a fourth legal system influencing actions in Nigeria. Canon law and statutory law prohibit polygamy or bigamy. In fact, marrying another spouse when still legally married invalidates the second marriage in both systems. However, customary and Islamic laws permit polygamy.
Pope John Paul II’s Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the family, Familiaris Consortio (FS), issued in 1984, identifies certain irregular marriage situations. They include (a) Trial marriages, which are relationships where couples arrange to live together for a time to see if they are compatible for marriage. (b) De facto free unions or cohabitation, (c) Catholics in civil marriages, which refer to “Catholics who for ideological or practical reasons, prefer to contract a merely civil marriage, and who reject or at least defer religious marriage” (FS, 82), (d) Separated or divorced persons who have not remarried, and (e) Divorced persons who have remarried (FS, 79-84). Homosexual unions are not considered because such unions are against divine natural law. However, Fiducia Supplicans now considers gay unions alongside couples in irregular situations (Fiducia Supplicans, 31).
In the Church in Nigeria, couples in irregular situations include a man with more than one wife, a woman in a polygamous marriage, a couple who only married customarily or according to statutory law or according to both legal systems, the separated or divorced who have not remarried, the divorced and remarried (without obtaining an annulment for the previous marriage), and cohabitation.
For a long time, the Church taught that one in an irregular matrimonial situation should be deprived of an ecclesiastical funeral because they were considered public and manifest sinners. Canon 1240 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law provided that public and manifest sinners should be deprived of ecclesiastical burial unless they showed a sign of repentance before death. However, the issue became challenging for various dioceses around the world. Consequently, on 29 May 1973, the then Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a “Circular Letter on the ecclesiastical burial of the faithful in irregular matrimonial situations”. The Congregation wrote
Many Episcopal Conferences and numerous local Ordinaries have asked this Sacred Congregation that the current practice be mitigated regarding the ecclesiastical burial of those faithful who, at the moment of their death, find themselves in an irregular matrimonial situation…The Fathers have decided, with the approval of the Supreme Pontiff, to make the celebration of an ecclesiastical burial easier for those faithful Catholics who have violated the norm of canon 1240.
Derogating from this canon insofar as it is necessary, a new regulation will be promulgated as soon as possible, in which the celebration of religious funerals will no longer be prohibited for those faithful, who, though found in a manifest condition of sin before death, retain their adherence to the Church and give some sign of repentance, provided that public scandal to the other faithful is avoided. The scandal to the faithful and to the ecclesiastical community may, however, be mitigated or avoided to the extent that Pastors take care to illustrate in a suitable manner the meaning of Christian funerals, which many see as an appeal to the mercy of God and as a testimony to the faith of the community in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.[1]
On 20 September 1973, the Congregation issued the “Decree on the ecclesiastical burial of manifest sinners.” It reads:
“The Fathers of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Plenary Assembly of November 14-15, 1972, regarding the ecclesiastical burial have decreed that funerals for manifest sinners are no longer forbidden, if before death they gave some sign of repentance and if public scandal among the other faithful is avoided. The Holy Father Paul VI, in the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect on 17 November, 1972, ratified, approved, and ordered this decision of the Fathers to be published, abrogating insofar as necessary canon 1240 §1, notwithstanding any contrary disposition.”[2]
The 1983 Code maintains that “manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful” must be deprived of an ecclesiastical funeral “unless they gave some signs of repentance before death” (Can. 1184 §1, 3°).
Since the Church wishes to make ecclesiastical funerals easier for those in irregular marriage situations, it means that we should continue in our current practice of granting them ecclesiastical funerals unless they did not show signs of repentance before death, and the Christian funeral cannot be celebrated without public scandal to the faithful.
However, there could be a situation where the deceased shows signs of repentance before death, but there is a danger of public scandal. Here, the parish priest could enlighten the Christian faithful on the meaning and purpose of Christian funerals. An ecclesiastical funeral is a liturgical celebration of the Church through which the Church aims to express efficacious communion with the deceased, participation in that communion of the community gathered, and proclamation of eternal life to the community (CCC, 1684). Through an ecclesiastical funeral, the Church prays for her children that they may be welcomed among the saints in heaven and asks for consolation and hope for those who mourn the passing of the deceased (cf. Can. 1176 §2). Therefore, those who have already shown signs of repentance should be assisted in their journey towards heaven.
Moreover, the parish priest can limit the Christian funeral rites to only the family members or eliminate all the pomp associated with funerals celebrated within the Church. Can. 1185 of the 1983 Code says that “Any funeral Mass must also be denied a person who is excluded from ecclesiastical funerals”. Therefore, since these people are not denied ecclesiastical funerals, a funeral mass can be said for them too. Whether the priest, the catechist, or the seminarian conducts the funeral or whether or not a funeral mass will be said depends on the situation. No two cases are exactly the same.
May God continue to help us🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
[1] https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19730529_sepolt-eccl-matr-irreg_en.html
[2] https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19730920_de-sepultura-ecclesiastica_en.html
Good input
Thank you, dear Fr, for reading