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From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IRELAND-OLD-NEWS] !! Connaught Journal; Sep 25, 1823 #4
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 20:08:57 -0600


Connaught Journal
Galway, Thursday, September 25, 1823


RIGHTS OF SEPULTURS.
_______________
An opinion has been obtained from Mr. O'Connell on this question, which, as
it is one of very deep interest, we lose no time in laying it before the
public:

"There is no Statue Law preventing a Catholic Priest from praying for a
deceased Catholic in a Church-yard. The mistake no this subject originates
in a misapprehension (frequently a wilful one) of the Statute of the 21st
and 22d of the late King, cap. 24, sec. 8. But that section contains no
prohibition. It is not, in itself, any enactment of a positive or
affirmative nature. It operates merely by way of exception, and it simply
deprives such Catholic Priest as may ' officiate at a funeral in a Church or
Church-yard' of the benefits conferred by that Act.

"Now, no Catholic Priest, does, at present, want the benefit of that Act at
all. It is, in truth, now a dead letter, remaining with much similar lumber
on the Statute Book, creating no rights, constituting no privations, unless
in its enactments, nugatory in its exceptions.

"The next question asked me is, whether the praying for the dead by a
Catholic Priest, at a funeral or in a church-yard is prohibited by the
Common Law? My answer is, THAT IT IS NOT. The Catholic Religion had its
pre-existence in the Common Law; it was adopted into the Common Law as part
and parcel of that Law. So the Law continued until what is called the
Reformation, in the reign of Henry VIII. The Catholic religion being thus
part and parcel of the Common Law, it follows, necessarily, that praying for
the dead could not be prohibited either at funerals, in the church-yards or
elsewhere. On the contrary, it was at Common Law, part of the duty of the
Priest, and he was bound to pray for the dead at funerals and in
church-yards. And it was reciprocally one of the rights of the King's
subjects at Common Law to have prayers said for the dead by Catholic Priests
at funerals and in church-yards.

"Thus such prayers not being prohibited, but, on the contrary, being
enjoined at Common Law, and there being no Statute to prevent such praying,
it follows, as a matter of course, that no Catholic Priest can be legally
prevented from praying for a deceased Catholic at a funeral in a
church-yard.

"The next question turns upon the mode of redress, should a Catholic Priest
be prevented from thus officiating? As to that- I am of opinion (but with
some doubt) that an action would lie at the suit of the Executors of the
deceased against any person who prevented a Catholic Priest from praying in
the church-yard over the body of their Testator. But, as I am unwilling to
advise litigation where it may be provided, I think the best remedy would be
found in the peaceful but determined assertion of the right. Let the friends
of the deceased peaceably surround the Priest and the body during the
service. Let any violence which may arise come from the preventing parties,
and then the individuals to whom that violence may be used will have a
distinct right of action, or may proceed by indictment against the persons
who use force. In many Counties there may be natural and usual apprehension
that the Magistrates tinged (to speak moderately) with Orange, may not do
strict justice to the Catholics on any occasion of this sort, in every such
case the indictment, as soon as found, should be removed by certiorari into
the King's Bench, where every body is sure of meeting impartial justice. If
Grand Juries acting on a similar bad feeling, throw out the Bills of
Indictment, the Court of King's Bench, upon making out, by affidavit, a
proper case for that purpose, will grant a criminal information.

"Thus it will be found that there are abundant means for the Catholics to
maintain this their undoubted right. I am decidedly of the opinion that it
ought to be asserted. The Catholics may as well at once abandon the tombs of
their fathers and relatives, as submit to the petty and tyrannical bigotry
which now seeks unjustly and illegally to deprive them at moments of the
greatest and most bitter sorrow of the awful but melancholy consolations of
their Holy Religion.

"I therefore, repeat my decided opinion, that the Catholics have a right to
these prayers, and that such right should be exerted with determination, but
peaceably and without any illegal violence whatever."

DANIEL O'CONNELL.


Cathy Joynt Labath
Abstracts from Irish Newspapers
http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/Ireland/


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