Views from the Choir Loft

New Document on Christian Burial and Cremation

Andrew Leung · October 27, 2016

HE CONGREGATION FOR DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH (CDF) just issued a new document on Christian burial and cremation. The instruction, “Ad resurgendum cum Christo”, was published by the Vatican yesterday. Gerhard Cardinal Müller, the prefect of the CDF, attended the press conference and introduced the document. The English translation of the document can be found on the website of the Vatican Radio. This video below, from the Rome Reports, gives a pretty good summary of the new document:

N THE PAST FEW YEARS, I have experienced a few awkward funerals where the cremated remains of the deceased person was brought to the church. I have always had doubts about this practice since the funeral rite was meant to perform over the casket with the body of the faithful departed. And I was right:

In the absence of motives contrary to Christian doctrine, the Church, after the celebration of the funeral rite, accompanies the choice of cremation, providing the relevant liturgical and pastoral directives, and taking particular care to avoid every form of scandal or the appearance of religious indifferentism.

Please correct me if I am wrong. It seems to me that the above paragraph (no. 4) clearly stated that the funeral rite is to be held prior to the cremation. Therefore, a Mass for the Dead (Memorial Mass) should be celebrated in place of the Funeral Mass when the body of the deceased had already been cremated.

Requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescant in pace. Amen.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy (from Latin to English). My grandfather obviously didn’t agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right.”

— Simon Tolkien (2003)