Catholic Funerals

Funeral practices can vary greatly depending on the desires (simple or elaborate) and budget of the surviving family.

The funeral usually includes a:

Wake (aka calling or visitation): The wake takes place one or two days before the funeral service. During the wake, mourners come to pay their respects to the family of the deceased. The body of the person who has died is generally present and the casket can be either open or closed.

Service and burial: The service can take place in a church or at the funeral home and it generally involves a priest giving a service and people eulogizing the dead. Following the service, the body is take to the cemetery for burial or taken away for cremation.

Reception: Following the funeral, mourners gather to remember, honor and celebrate the life of the person who has died.

In regards to catholic funerals, the church teaches that when a person dies, their body starts its process of decomposition. Meanwhile, the soul leaves the body and is immediately evaluated in a Particular Judgment. This belief is partly based on Hebrews 9:27:

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (KJV).

There are three possible destinations immediately after the judgment:

• Heaven: Those whose “love for God has been perfected in this life” have their bodies “glorified” and taken immediately to their eternal reward in Heaven. Perhaps the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, the saints and a some others will qualify for this path.
• Hell: If they have committed a mortal sin which has not been forgiven, or have rejected God, then they are taken immediately to Hell where they will be tortured forever without any hope of relief or mercy.
• Purgatory: If the person dies in a state of grace, but loves God “imperfectly,” then their souls immediately enter Purgatory. Here, they suffer for a time in order to cleanse themselves of their accumulated imperfections, venial sins and faults. Any mortal sins that they have committed, and for which they have been forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, may have some residual temporal punishment still remaining; this has to be discharged as well.
• The inhabitants in Purgatory are systematically tortured with fire. The dead remain in purgatory until they have become sufficiently purified to enter heaven. However, if their friends and family offer Masses, prayers and other acts of piety and devotion, then their stay in Purgatory will be shortened. Purgatory is very similar to Hell; the main difference is that one will eventually be released from the torture.

Although most Catholic believers have regarded Heaven, Hell and Purgatory as actual places, the church's teaching is that they are both a place and a state of existence.

Later, when Jesus returns to earth in the “second coming”, he will conduct the General Judgment (a.k.a. Final Judgment):

Those who have previously died have already faced the Particular Judgment; that decision will continue in force. Those in Heaven or Hell will continue to spend eternity there. However, those who are in Purgatory at the time of Jesus' second coming will be released and moved to heaven immediately. At the second coming, the bodies of the dead will be reconstituted; this produces a bodily resurrection. At that time, they will be permanently reunited with their souls. This second judgment is needed so that the entire human race can learn about every person's life and comprehend the “justice, wisdom, and mercy of God.”

All people who are alive on earth at the time of the second coming will be assembled together (Matthew 25:31-32).

“Those who have rejected the Lord in this life, who have sinned mortally, who have no remorse for sin and do not seek forgiveness, will have condemned themselves to hell for all eternity.”

The others will go either to Purgatory or Heaven, depending upon the perfection of their love for God. The same evaluation criteria will be used in the General Judgment as for the Particular Judgment.

Every “deliberate thought, word, deed and omission” of every individual that has ever lived, would be reviewed at the Final Judgment. The only exception would be thoughts and acts of Jesus of Nazareth, who lived without sin. This would presumably be a very time consuming process. It would be necessary to include the life histories of each of the billions of humans that have lived on earth for the past many hundreds of thousands of years that the human race has been in existence.

Remembering the Dead

All Souls Day (November 1) is a Roman Catholic holiday that remembers the souls of people who have died and who can benefit from the prayers of the faithful. In many Latin American countries, this day is the Day of the Dead, during which people picnic at the graves of dead family members and hold other festivities commemorating those who have passed on.

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