As November is the month of the Poor Souls I thought this an opportune time to talk about an issue that is increasingly presenting itself to us in the parish here, and in other parishes throughout the country. Many times we are getting requests for a Funeral Service Outside of Mass to be celebrated in a funeral home. While this is understandable in certain circumstances, as a general rule a Catholic has both the right and the obligation for a Funeral Mass to be celebrated in their parish church. There exists many reasons for someone to be buried from another church, and we often do that here for former parishioners who are being buried in a local cemetery. As we do not have a parish cemetery here, it is incumbent on the family to secure a proper burial for their deceased relatives, even when that person has been cremated. In anticipation of the Day of Resurrection, the church requires that all cremated remains (cremains) are buried in sacred ground. This flies against the increasingly common secular practice of turning our relatives into jewelry or other objects d’art or dumping them in the ocean, the bay, or scattering them in the yard or at their favorite watering hole. This morbid sentimentality does, in the long run, place an additional burden on some family members. There is also a denial of the reality of death that underlies here, and we then lack the ability to properly mourn and go through the grieving process. Please make sure that your wishes to be buried and to have a proper Funeral Mass are clearly expressed to your family. I have suggested before that you prearrange with the funeral home and the parish the details for your funeral rites so that you can have the proper form of Catholic burial.
While typically November affords an opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence for visiting a Catholic cemetery during the first eight days of the month, the Vatican has just extended that privilege for the entire month. This is due to the restrictions of visitations in force in some places due to the pandemic. I encourage you to partake in this noble practice during this month.
This weekend and next weekend we are observing Vocation Awareness Week and we will be focusing on priestly vocations for the preaching at both weekends. We are all well-aware that we are in the midst of a vocation crisis here in our diocese and that we will very soon not have enough priests to staff all of the parishes. We have been through the studies to determine the health of the parishes, and have done some cooperative ministries through the diocesan-wide Faith-in-Our-Future program which we undertook six years ago. To be honest, and due in part to our parish shifting cohorts as the pandemic hit, we are not seeing many fruits of that program in our immediate area.
Yet, we are aware that as several local Catholic Schools in our area closed over the past twelve years, some of those parishes are now equally challenged to remain open or at least independent. It is incumbent on all of us to pray for vocations to the priesthood and also to inspire the men whom we know to prayerfully consider priesthood as their calling in life.
There are indeed many challenges facing the church and even specifically the priesthood in our times. With clear intentionality and purpose, we can make a difference in even a small way through our words of encouragement in this area. The very sacramental life of our faith is jeopardized when we lack the priests necessary to confect the Sacrament for us, to give us the Anointing of the Sick, and to hear our Confessions.
We all have much to consider in this life of faith. May the Lord in his goodness bless us!
Father Garry