Homilies at the Celebration of Lives, formerly known as Requiems, are out of control and no better example than the homily for disgraced, excommunicated, former Bishop Hubbard, excommunicated for attempting marriage.
I don’t know if Hubbard is in heaven, purgatory or hell. Traditional Catholic teaching lets us know that all three are possible and known only to God.
What I do know is that no one but the pope can canonize someone as being definitively in heaven. I also know that no one, not even the pope, can declare someone to be definitively in hell.
Perhaps Bishop Scharfenberger should have simply given a funeral homily on the last four things, death, judgement, heaven and hell and sprinkled a bit of purgatory into it. He could have said that I can’t canonize Hubbard nor condemn him to hell, only God can do that at Hubbard’s personal judgment. I can say that no one can be saved who remains unrepentant in manifest mortal sin. I pray that Hubbard repented of his mortal sins publicly known and others only known to him. I pray for his soul as he passes through the purifying fires of purgatory and I give thanks to God for the Sacrifice of His Son which alone give all of us hope for eternal life in heaven when we receive the gift of salvation offered to us, but never imposed on us.
Will everyone at the funeral be pleased? Will that homily sound judgmental and harsh rather than Pollyanna? You betcha!
Most homilies at Catholic Funerals have become “celebrations of life” focusing on the banal aspects of one’s life. Universal salvation is preached and the deceased is surely in heaven. That’s a great comfort to the bereaved even if the proclamation is a lie or it makes the bereaved angry to hear falsehoods spoken about their scoundrel loved one. They doubt he or she is in heaven.
Here’s the Pillar’s description of Hubbard’s Celebration of Life in Albany, New York:
12 comments:
Why are they bowing to a candlestick?
Fr. David Evans - They aren't. And you know they aren't.
When the priest reverences the altar at the beginning of mass, do you ask, "Why is he kissing a rock," or, "Why is he kissing a piece of wood?"
No, you don't. Because you know better, just as you know better about the candlestick.
(If you don't, turn in your faculties.)
The top cloth on the altar is required to be white even if a colored cloth is used to cover fully or partially the altar.
Father McDonald said..."Say what you want, but I thought Pope Francis’ homily for Pope Benedicts Requiem was very good , short and certainly not a eulogy. It is a model for seminarians and those already ordained:"
Father McDonald, the above signifies your sense of fairness.
One Pope Francis "critic" after another has weaponized Pope Francis' homily in question to "prove" His Holiness' supposed coldness toward Pope Benedict XVI.
Example: Father, last month you promoted an interview that Peter Seewald had granted to kath.net (reproduced on Rorate Caeli). Peter Seewald declared:
"We all remember the warm words of Ratzinger at the Requiem for John Paul II, words that touched the heart, that spoke of Christian love, of respect. But no one remembers Bergoglio's words at the Requiem for Benedict XVI. They were as cold as the whole ceremony, which couldn't be short enough to avoid paying an inch too much tribute to his predecessor."
Father McDonald, in light of your view of Pope Francis, you could have joined those who have misrepresented/weaponized Pope Francis' homily in question. However, Father, you did not join those who have twisted the homily to, in turn, defame Pope Francis.
Father McDonald, that speaks well of you. Your fairness is among your many outstanding characteristics.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Fr. Paul Scalia's homily at his father's funeral was brilliant. The entire Mass was a model of Catholic rectitude and refinement.
Fr. Scalia's homily and the words of his father are very much on point.
Misplaced emphasis has become the norm at Roman funerals.
I understand why, in some respects I'm sympathetic to the why, but that why seems to overshadow the final act, as mentioned by Fr. Scalia, that we can perform for the departed.
Fr. David Evans,
One could also be a smart-ass and question why they are bowing to the pipe organ that occupies the back of the sanctuary above the orchestra pit. This arrangement is so very Baptist!
A perfectly inward looking circle has been created here. Pope Benedict XVI described spaces of this sort thusly. Not the worst, not the best, nothing to emulate.
Interesting photo of the funeral proceedings.
Does anyone know which airport terminal the even was held in?
The better question is why a Catholic funeral at all? Why would the Ordinary allow this?
TJM - For the same reasons you will, all things being equal, be given a Catholic funeral.
TJM, because they are cowards.
TJM,
Per my understanding of the Bishop's situation (a man I never heard of until last week), I gather he never did anything that would rise to the level of denial, at least in the Roman Church. I also understand there is nothing in the current catechism that outright denies a mass of Christian Burial - seems it was a more black and white if/then/else determination years ago.
If he were an Eastern Byzantine, which, of course, he is not, it would have been more complicated. Is one a "priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" if one abandons one's ministry? The burial rights for a priest and bishop are very distinct and broken into parts. To me, they presuppose the deceased continued his ministry in good standing at the time of death. We do allow for the Office to be celebrated from the funeral home - there is no requirement that divine liturgy be celebrated. Really, divine liturgy as part of marital and burial rites is a more recent phenomenon.
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