EX-PRIEST OFFERS INSIGHT ON WHY CATHOLICS NOW OFFER MASS FOR SUICIDES
With the Catholic Church having a long standing history of denying people that commit suicide ecclesiastical funerals, the debate has once again been sparked in the wake of the death by suspected suicide of cleric Kenan Chibawe.
Chibawe allegedly shot himself at the Parish House in Namwala’s Holy Cross Parish.
Former Catholic priest turned academic Given Mutinta has weighed in on the questions around offering ecclesiastical funerals and also why Chibawe may not be buried at the sanctified Chikuni Cemetery where Catholics have traditionally lain their priests in Monze Diocese.
Below is the full articulate:
FR KENAN CHIBAWE’S FUNERAL MASS AND FINAL PLACE OF REST RAISE QUESTIONS
The Catholic Diocese of Monze has confirmed that the late Fr Kenan Chibawe who died on 21st April 2022 in Namwala will be put to rest on 25th April 2022.
The bubbly and big-hearted clergyman reportedly died as a result of gunshot wounds.
Monze Diocese Apostolic Administrator Very Rev Fr Francesco Airoldi said that two funeral masses will be celebrated, one on Saturday in Namwala and another on Sunday in Monze, respectively.
The requiem mass will be in Ntambo, the home village for the late Fr Chibawe.
Apostolic Administrator Very Rev Fr Airoldi’s announcement of funeral masses for the late Fr Chibawe has made some ardent Catholics to question ecclesiastic funerals for suspected suicides sufficiently dealt with in the Catholic canon law.
Evidence shows that from the 6th through the late 20th century, the Catholic Church technically did not bury anyone who wilfully terminated his or her own life.
However, there have been far-reaching shifts in the cultural attitude towards suspected suicides.
The change is influenced by a number of factors including the new understandings of mental illness as a disease, which has a powerful effect on Catholic thought and practice in modernity, and the Church eventually dropped the ban on funerals for suspected suicides from its law code altogether.
However, the legalisation of euthanasia a practice of ending the life of a patient to limit the patient’s suffering also referred to as physician-assisted death has again raised the possibility of a prohibition on funerals.
The Catholic Church was able to drop its restrictions on funerals since suspected suicide was viewed as an act beyond the control of the deceased and thus worthy of mercy and compassion.
Put simply, the history of the Catholic canon law on suicide funerals reveals the complexity of the Catholic attitude towards suspected suicide and provides an important context to the contemporary debate around physician-assisted death, and conflicts between medicine and religion more broadly.
The other question raised by some Catholics is that the late Fr Chibawe will be buried in Ntambo his home village not at Chikuni Mission cemetery where most of the late Priests from the Diocese of Monze are resting.
Where one will have his final rest is indeed a question that requires a lot of thought and takes several different factors into consideration.
There is a dearth of information why Fr Chibawe will be laid to rest in Ntambo not at Chikuni Mission cemetery.
It is possible that Fr Chibawe placed a high priority on being buried close to his loved ones in Ntambo who have already died. Not only is there something comforting about having an eternal resting place that is near the people one loves.
It is also likely that Fr Chibawe may have thought that living relatives will find it easy to visit his final resting place if they can pay tribute to several of their deceased relatives in the same place.
However, some Catholics are of the idea that being a Priest in the Diocese of Monze, a religious identity that was so dear, meaningful and almost everything to Fr Chibawe, he should have considered Chikuni Mission cemetery with priestly-based ties and long-standing religious tradition.
It is unlikely that he will not be buried at Chikuni Mission cemetery because of the alleged circumstance surrounding his death that he does not meet the Chikuni Mission cemetery’s rules and requirements.
Of course, Chikuni Mission cemetery has strict regulations for burial procedures, and rules about all sorts of issues on what is permitted on the site’s grounds.
Even then, the same Christian value of mercy and compassion the Catholic Church has towards funeral mass for suicide suspect should apply to burials unless the Catholic canon law is specific in its directives in this matter.
Besides, there is no empirical and exhaustive evidence on the cause of his death to influence his final resting place if at all it would.