A Catholic Vicar just said that families with gay loved ones and same-sex couple can be denied funerals by the Catholic church.
Vicar James Bartylla sent out a memo that focused on “Consideration of Funeral Rites for a Person in a Homosexual Civil or Notorious Union.” As you probably imagined, the memo was not good news for gay couples.
The memo stated that if one person in a gay couple died, the living partner:
“Should not have any public or prominent role at any ecclesiastical funeral rite or service… There should be no mention of the ’partner’ [quotes theirs] either by name or by other reference (nor reference to the unnatural union) in any liturgical booklet, prayer card, homily, sermon, talk by the priest, deacon, etc.”
In addition, there are several questions raised like whether either the deceased partner or the living one was “a promoter of the ’gay’ lifestyle” and “did the deceased give some signs of repentance before death?”
It also added that the Catholic church can’t show any support for gay couples thus a priest and/or his parish shouldn’t allow any public leaks of funerals involving gay couples connected to the church. (Essentially meaning, the Catholic church should not have any public connection to homosexuality).
The exact expert from the memo said:
“A great risk for scandal and confusion is for the name of the celebrating priest and/or the parish to be listed in any public (e.g., newspaper) or semi-public obituary or notice that also lists the predeceased or surviving “partner” in some manner.”
While this isn’t exact a rule within the Catholic church for all to follow, it will influence some parishes in the future.
