Guidelines for Funerals in the Diocese of Kilmore during COVID-19 Emergency – Amended 11:00a.m. Friday 27 March 2020
Guidelines for Funerals in the Diocese of Kilmore during COVID-19 Emergency – Amended 11:00a.m. Friday 27 March 2020
Funerals will continue out of necessity but please note that the following restrictions are in place.
- There will be no wakes in the house.
- Priests are not required to lead prayers in the home of the deceased. Instead the family can pray the Rosary and can be given other prayers to say in the home.
- There will be no sympathising or physical contact with the bereaved at any stage.
- There will be no touching of the body or the coffin.
- There will be no Removal to the Church on the evening before the burial
- All funerals will be private, with just the immediate family being present and no more than twenty people, well-spaced apart, in the church for the funeral Mass. Families may decide not to publicise the time of the funeral Mass to ensure that restrictions are adhered to.
- The funeral Mass will be simple, with none of the normal participation of the laity in the liturgy. If Holy Communion is distributed at the Funeral Mass it must be done in a safe manner.
- If the deceased person had contracted the coronavirus COVID-19, then government directives are that the body is to be brought directly from the funeral home to the cemetery where the usual graveside prayers are said.
- At the grave-side it is important that the social distancing rule is adhered to.
- Arrangements can be made to have the equivalent of a Month’s Memory Mass for the deceased person to take place when restrictions are lifted, so that the family and community can then gather to pray for the deceased and pay their respects to them.