Peace & Justice
St. Henry Church, St. Henry, Ohio
As We Forgive Those... by Fr. James Smith, c. pp. s., Parochial Vicar at St. Henry Cluster Parishes, St. Henry Ohio
The first day after my ordination to the priesthood, a call came in from the nursing home across the street requesting a funeral. The parish secretary and staff suggested that this was my chance to experience ministering at a funeral. That funeral followed a week later, and the reality had set in that one of the new functions in my life as a minister and as a priest would be funerals.
This past June the experience and reality of funerals and burying the dead became forefront in the national conversation on same-sex marriage and lgbt persons. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois issued a“ Decree Regarding Same- Sex‘ Marriage’ and Related Pastoral Issues.” The decree outlines prohibitions and guidelines for men and women in same-sex marriages regarding marriages, communion, baptisms, Confirmation, liturgical ministries, and, most notably, funeral rites. Specifically, the decree states that individuals living“ openly in same-sex marriage( s)… are to be deprived of ecclesiastical funeral rites.” Only when individuals in same-sex marriages have given some signs of repentance before death are they to be granted funeral rites. In case of doubt, the bishop himself is to judge.
The debate and conversation regarding same-sex civil marriage continues in the United States. The sacramental conversation of same-sex marriage is slowly emerging in some small segments of Catholic theologians, but more pronounced in a number of Protestant traditions. Putting aside what is or what should define the requirements or prohibitions around civil or sacramental marriage, the church clearly has a stake and vested interest in the degree to which the church engages something it does not clearly promote or condone. The ethical principle of cooperation is fitting here. Ethicists do a great job of this, especially in medical ethics. The granting or denying funeral rites is fundamentally an ethical issue: an ethical issue of inclusion or exclusion of basic pastoral care. The ethics or morality of marriage and sexuality should not be ignored. The morality of granting pastoral care to those mourning cannot be ignored or relegated either.
In the media onslaught that followed the decree, Bishop Paprocki was notably criticized for not issuing the decree to cover all irregular relationships, including divorced-and-remarried opposite-sex couples. He later clarified that the prohibitions in the decree continued on page 8
October 2017 • The New Wine Press • 7