SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese has done away with eulogies at funeral services.
“Words of remembrance” about a deceased loved one, which differs from a eulogy, now have to be submitted three days in advance and can only be read by a priest or a deacon at a funeral service.
Another “irregular practice” that has been quashed is holding a visitation in the church immediately preceding the funeral mass.
The new policies and procedures went into effect July 1 and were addressed by Springfield Bishop Thomas John Paprocki in a recent column in Catholic Times, the official publication of the diocese.
Paprocki said he wanted to ensure that funerals in the diocese conform to “the norms” of the church.
The diocese is made up of 28 counties in a band across the middle part of the state. There are roughly 124,000 Catholics in 129 parishes in the diocese.
Springfield isn’t alone in addressing some of the funeral practices.
In ending funeral visitations in churches, Bishop David J. Bonnar of Youngstown, Ohio, cited the “noise and activity” that compromised the sacredness of the setting.
Paprocki said he had “extensive discussions” with a priests’ council and a diocesan-level lay ministry council about the practices. That led to a series of regional meetings with funeral directors and priests about how to implement the new practices.
Regarding “words of remembrance,” Paprocki said “[u]nfortunately, too often people speaking at the end of a funeral mass say things that are very inappropriate.”
Because family members “are often overcome with grief and have a hard time getting through their remarks,” Paprocki said, the priest or deacon will read the remarks either at the funeral vigil, the funeral mass or liturgy or the “rite of committal” at the cemetery. All three comprise the “Order of Christian Funerals” and are “intricately connected,” he said.
The practice of having a visitation in the church immediately preceding the funeral mass, the bishop noted is “one of the liturgical anomalies that has emerged over the past few years.”
The “vigil, by definition, is the night before, so the vigil prayers will be prayed then by the priest or deacon even if there is no public visitation,” he noted. “In such cases, it would be fitting at least for the immediate family members to join the priest or deacon…”
A eulogy, Paprocki added, “makes the person being praised the main focus of attention” and any words of remembrance should address “how the deceased person put his or her Christian faith into practice.”
Paprocki said the Catholic church “still earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased,” while acknowledging that cremation is not prohibited.
Diocesan policy requires that interment of cremated remains “should ordinarily” take place within 30 days following the funeral rites and that “at no time and in no way” should remains be “divided, separated or interred in more than one place.”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Last word: Diocese doing away with eulogies at Catholic funerals
Reporting by Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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By Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register | USA TODAY Network
