Topic:  Can a funeral be on Sunday?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: June 30, 2005

Moderator who originally posted this source: Kathy Martyn

Question: What is the positon of our Church regarding funerals and burials on Sundays? Thank you,Steve Kilyanek

Answer: 

Hello! I will quote from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:

380. Among the Masses for the Dead, the Funeral Mass holds first place. It may be celebrated on any day except for Solemnities that are holy days of obligation, Holy Thursday, the Easter Triduum, and the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter, with due regard also for all the other requirements of the norm of the law.146

There may be a funeral liturgy outside Mass:
1) When the funeral Mass is not permitted (as mentioned above);

2) when in some places or circumstances it is not possible to celebrate the funeral Mass before the committal, for example if a preist is not available;

3) when for pastoral reasons the pastor and the family judge that the funeral liturgy outsside Mass is a more suitable form of celebration.

Hope this helps!