A Catholic diocese is advising priests in Madison to be careful with funerals for people who lived a homosexual lifestyle to avoid scandalizing the faithful.
A memo was sent by vicar general Fr. James Bartylla regarding “Consideration of Funeral Rites for a Person in a Homosexual Civil or Notorious Union” to priests of the diocese as part of a weekly e-mail. It was made public by the Pray Tell blog Oct. 22.
In the memo, general considerations for such situations were offered including:
• Was the deceased or the “partner” a promoter of the “gay” lifestyle? What is the attitude of the deceased’s family members, especially towards the Church?
• Did the deceased give some signs of repentance before death?
• If ecclesiastical funeral rites are allowed, should they occur without a Mass?
• To minimize scandal, should there merely be a short scripture service at the funeral home? Or maybe merely a graveside service? Maybe a later “Mass for the Dead” with or without explicit mention of the name of the deceased or “partner” could alternatively or in addition be offered at the parish or even at another parish (to avoid scandal), with or without family members present.
•Any surviving “partner” should not have any public or prominent role at any ecclesiastical funeral rite or service.
• 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. This can’t happen for obvious reasons.
• There should be no mention of the “partner” 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…
• It may be wise to keep the priest or deacon involvement to the minimum (i.e., limited to one priest or deacon and at merely essential times of a service or rite, if one occurs).
The Diocese of Madison offered an emailed statement to News 3 on Monday night, saying it would be their “only public statement” on the issue.
“The communication attributed to Bishop Morlino was not an official diocesan policy, though it does conform with the mind of the bishop and meet his approval,” the statement reads in part.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, said in a statement that it seems “there are a number of bishops in the U.S. who are intent on penalizing the LGBTQI community as harshly as possible.” DignityUSA is the world’s longest-standing organization of Catholics committed to justice, equality, and full inclusion of LGBTQI Catholics in the Church and society.
“Some tried this shameful tactic during the height of the AIDS crisis, denying Catholic funerals to those who died of the disease. It only served to devastate families in need of comfort,” Duddy-Burke said. “Now, Church officials see they have lost in the civic arena, on the issues of marriage equality, military service, and adoption, so they are lashing out again. But we and the vast majority of Catholics now know there is no conflict between loving someone of the same gender and loving our faith. Masking attempts to separate LGBTQI Catholics from the rest of the Church under the guise of pastoral instructions breaks the Body of Christ. It shows that these bishops are unwilling to do the real work of pastoral leadership, which is to engage their flocks in honest dialogue.”
