Catholic rituality in the face of death in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The human being of all times has been ritually related to death. The historical evidence refers to ancient ceremonials that were performed around the death of people, characterized by an elaborate symbolic code on the foundation of which the social reality is developed, giving meaning to the transcendent and mystical experience that, humanly speaking, seems to some only as the end of a cycle and, for others, as an opening to transcendence.

In Catholic theology and tradition, illness and death are accompanied by a variety of rituals aimed at restoring the sick person to health, as in the case of the Anointing of the Sick, the laying on of hands and viaticum; or also, to give hope, comfort and comfort and resignation in the face of death, as in the case of the Responsory of the Death, the prayer vigil for the deceased, the Requiem Mass for the blessing of the tomb and the last commendation of the soul in the cemetery.

These rituals in which the Christian community accompanies, in times of illness and death, could not be performed for all those faithful Christians who died during the pandemic and were buried under the COVID protocol.

This essay is a descriptive study analyzing Catholic rituality regarding death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of the phenomenology in the case of rituality and the meaning of Christian death, considers what is established in the Rituals of the Catholic Church in this regard, the experience of families who lost their loved ones and also the experience of some priests who accompanied cases of sick and dead by COVID.