Catholic Archdiocese Of Owerri Bans ‘Funeral Oration, Lying In State’ at Burials

The Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri in Imo State has released fresh directives for burials and marriages for its adherents in Imo State.

The directives endorsed by the Archbishop, AJV Obinna, are coming on the heels of the lifting on ban of burials by the Imo state government last weekend following compliant by Mortuary owners in the state of many corpses in their mortuaries.

Governor Hope Uzodimma, had announced the lifting of the ban for burials and with new procedures accepted by the Catholic Church Leadership are part of efforts by the Catholic church in the State, to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and in collaboration with the state government vision and mission of addressing the aftermaths of the pandemic.

The new rules adopted by the Archdiocese and announced by Archbishop Anthony Obinna include:
The corpse of the deceased will be taken from the mortuary straight to the church for the reception and holy mass, there will be no lying in state in the family house before Holy Mass. Family members may go to the Mortuary to view the remains before the movement to the church.

More so, blowing or blaring of sirens is prohibited and no external dance show should accompany the ambulance

The parish priest with his assistant (s) if the parish will conduct the funeral mass with not more than  10 visiting  priests to assist in the  co-celebration of the funeral mass.

There will be no more than 50 persons in the church in order to maintain social distancing global directives.

Also the funeral requiem mass will not last more than 70 minutes with not more than 10 minutes used for homily.

The equally advised that all in attendance should wear face masks and wash their hands and there will be no more funeral oration. A member of the family will be allowed to express the family thanks in not more than 3 minutes

Finally, there will be no condolence collection and One priest is enough to conduct the interment however, not more than 5 priests will be accommodated during the interment at the grave side .