ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EVEN KNOWS THIS! ANY AND ALL LAICIZED PRIESTS KNOW IT TOO!

Let’s get canonical! There is a celebrity laicized pro-life priest who, unadvisedly, has requested that he be allowed to celebrate the funeral Mass, a public event, for his now deceased mother.

That is verboten! He’s knows it and he is using his mother’s death to stir the pot over his forced laicization. That is a mortal sin.

In my 46 years as a priest, I have had many laicized priests in my parishes, some active as laymen. Technically, they cannot function in official liturgical ministries as lector or extraordinary Communion ministers. I don’t think they are allowed to be teachers or catechists either.

They certainly cannot concelebrate Mass. I even had one laicized priest ask me if he could concelebrate his mother’s funeral. I asked my bishop and my bishop said no.

One might argue why some priests are “defrocked” or “laicized” against their will while others who are more notorious in breaking their priestly promises of either obedience or celibacy are given a pass. Certainly Fr. Marko Rupnick is the most notorious example.

But that is mixing apples and oranges and are questions against consistency and justice. And in the case of Pope Francis, letting the teacher’s pets get passes that non pets don’t.

But once a priest chooses to be laicized or is forced into it, justly or not, he may not celebrate any public Mass. All he can do, in the event of a life-threatening emergency and no other priest is available, is to hear the dying person’s confession and offer the last rites of the Church, in particular the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick also known as Extreme Unction.

But this is what Artificial Intelligence knows about laicization and every laicized priest also knows:

No, a laicized (dismissed from clerical state) priest generally 

cannot offer a public funeral Mass because they are no longer authorized to perform priestly functions, but they are treated as lay faithful for funerals; however, in a life-or-death emergency (dying person, no other priest), they are permitted to hear confession and anoint, and they retain their indelible mark, meaning their private Eucharist is valid but illicit (disobedient). The local pastor or another authorized priest must celebrate the funeral rites for a laicized priest. 

Key Points:

• Laicization: This action removes the priest's permission to exercise ministry, but the sacramental character (indelible mark) remains, meaning the ordination itself isn't undone.
• Public vs. Private: A laicized priest cannot publicly function as a priest, meaning they can't lead Mass or perform sacraments publicly.
• Emergency Exception: In grave emergencies (e.g., a dying person with no other priest available), a laicized priest may licitly hear confession and anoint, but this is rare and specific to imminent death.
• Funeral Rites: A laicized priest receives the same funeral rites as any baptized layperson, celebrated by a pastor, not themselves in a priestly capacity.
• Validity vs. Licitity: While a private Mass might be valid (the Eucharist is truly present), it is illicit (forbidden by Church law) and a serious sin for a laicized priest to celebrate it. 

In Summary: A laicized priest cannot offer a public funeral Mass; their own funeral rites are those of a layperson, and they are forbidden from public priestly functions unless in extremely specific, life-or-death emergency situations