Catholic funeral

[2] In Catholic funerals, the Church "seeks spiritual support for the deceased, honors their bodies, and at the same time brings the solace of hope to the living.

"[3] The Second Vatican Council in its Constitution on the Liturgy decreed: "The rite for the burial of the dead should express more clearly the paschal character of Christian death, and should correspond more closely to the circumstances and traditions found in various regions.

[10][11] However, Catholic burial rites are to be refused even to baptized Catholics who fall within any of the following classifications, unless they gave some sign of repentance before death: The Latin Church also has some guidelines regarding the church in which the funeral rites are to be celebrated[14] and limits on the fees payable to a priest for conducting the funeral.

[18] In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI indicated that, "for those faithful or priests who request it, the pastor should allow celebrations in this extraordinary form also in special circumstances such as [...] funerals".

As they leave the house, the priest intones the antiphon Exsultabunt Domino, and then the psalm Miserere is recited or chanted in alternate verses by the cantors and clergy.

The idea seems to be that the bishop (or priest) in death should occupy the same position in the church as during life, facing his people who he taught and blessed in Christ's name.

According to another tradition not now considered obligatory in the Roman Rite, the feet of all Christians both before the altar and in the grave should be pointed to the East.

"A man ought so to be buried", he says, "that while his head lies to the West his feet are turned to the East..."[22] Next comes a cycle of prayers, the funeral Mass, and absolution of the dead.

A Funeral Mass usually concludes with the rite of commendation of the dead person, formerly referred to as the absolution, in which the coffin containing the body is sprinkled with holy water and incensed.

[24] In the United States, England, and Wales, the post-Vatican II form allows the use of white vestments,[25][26] besides violet and (where it is customary) black, which alone are envisaged in the original Latin text of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.

[27] The sequence Dies Iræ, recited or sung between the Tract and the Gospel, is an obligatory part of the Requiem Mass in the Tridentine forms.

[28] The part of the church service that follows the Mass includes the sprinkling of the coffin with holy water and incensing it on both sides.

This part was commonly called the absolution and in the Tridentine version is longer and contains several chants that, in the absence of a choir capable of singing them, are read in Latin by the celebrating priest: the Libera me, Domine before the honoring of the coffin, and the In paradisum while the body is carried from the church.

However, a mausoleum erected above ground, or even a brick chamber beneath the surface, is regarded as needing blessing when used for the first time.