PRÁVNĚ PASTORAČNÍ ASPEKTY POHŘBÍVÁNÍ

The objective of this paper consists of an organic comparison of close relationships mutually linking Canon and Liturgical laws, ecclesiastical funeral rites and popular piety. It serves to remind one of the principles guiding these relationships, and in offering an assessment of their implementation in the Czech Roman Catholic Church under its specific tradition. The author describes in historical sequence the major trends in burying practices inside a church, in the cemetery and in the crematorium under Church and civic regulations. The author has also drawn from particular norms which have been laid down at the Bishops’ conference, the individual Bishop for his diocese or even for a single parish. The practise of a funeral without a ceremony has been analysed with the example of a Roman Catholic parish in Úhonice near Prague in Central Bohemia. Along with the Church cemetery, the Canonical form of a funeral is intended to maintain the “good memory” of the deceased, which bears both a ceremonial as well as soteriological significance in the Catholic commemoration.