Catholic Funeral Mass Celebrated for Evangelical Bishop Tony Palmer

Michael Daly recently reflected on Bishop Tony Palmer’s Requiem Mass held at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church on Aug. 6th. You might recall that Bishop Palmer was a close friend of Pope Francis. Bishop Palmer became famous after Pope Francis called him “my Bishop Brother, Tony Palmer” during a video addressed to Kenneth Copeland. Sadly, Bishop Palmer died on July 20th after a motorcycle accident.

Daly spoke with Canon David Ryan, the parish priest at St. John’s, before the Mass. According to Daly,

Fr. David told us that because Tony was not a Roman Catholic he had to ask his bishops permission to celebrate the requiem and though Tony’ s wife and children are Roman Catholics, permission still had to be given for the requiem. The bishop agreed but said that Tony could not be buried as a bishop as he was not a Roman Catholic bishop. However, Pope Francis said he should and could be buried as a bishop…and so that put an end to that little bit of ecclesiastical nonsense!

Undoubtably some will be up in arms about Pope Francis ecumenical gesture; however, it is through these gestures that Pope Francis is attempting to soften our hardened hearts. Daly ends his moving reflection by quoting Pope Francis’ video address to Kenneth Copeland. Pope Francis’ words in that address show his reasons for treating Bishop Palmer as a fellow bishop:

I am speaking to you as a brother. I speak to you in a simple way. With joy and yearning. Let us allow our yearning to grow, because this will propel us to find each other, to embrace one another. And together to worship Jesus Christ as the only Lord of History.

Nathan Chase

Nathan P. Chase is Assistant Professor of Liturgical and Sacramental Theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO. He has contributed a number of articles to the field of liturgical studies, including pieces on liturgy in the early Church, initiation, the Eucharist, inculturation, and the Western Non-Roman Rites, in particular the Hispano-Mozarabic tradition. His first book The Homiliae Toletanae and the Theology of Lent and Easter was published in 2020. His second monograph, published in 2023, is titled The Anaphoral Tradition in the ‘Barcelona Papyrus.’

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Comments

17 responses to “Catholic Funeral Mass Celebrated for Evangelical Bishop Tony Palmer”

  1. Carl R. Opat

    LOVE IT!!!!!! More kudos to Pope Francis! Some bishops just need to open their hearts. Heaven will still be there.

    Reply
  2. Aaron Sanders

    The only detail of the funeral Mass that the Ritual or Missal marks out as specific to a bishop is the existence of model petitions for a deceased bishop/priest in the Universal Prayer. But since these are just suggested, not mandated, it leaves me wondering what the canon meant by being “buried as a bishop” and how that would relate to his own role in celebrating the funeral Mass.

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  3. Fr. Jack Feehily

    The SSPX’ers will find this act of kindness on the part of Pope Francis yet another indication that he is a hopeless modernist. This kind of gesture will be thought of as undermining the Catholic Church’s unique claim on the Kingdom of Heaven and its many mansions. We wouldn’t want to imagine bishop Tony as occupying one of the mansions reserved for true successors of the apostles. With each passing day I am coming to believe that Francis is the true herald of Christ’s coming again. Maranatha!

    Reply
  4. Ron Jones

    Pope Francis is a man of charity and compassion. He is a man of God.
    Tony Palmer was a man filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit. Does anyone wonder why they had such a holy friendship. This is what can happen when Christ is at the center of things.

    Reply
    1. Robert Rennick

      I couldn’t have put it better. – This is what can happen when Christ is at the centre of things

      @Ron Jones – comment #4:

      Reply
  5. Rick Reed

    Isn’t it the Rite of Christian Funeral, not the Rite of Catholic Funeral?

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  6. Brian Duffy

    Aren’t special collects still used for a bishop in a funeral service, and certain other customs followed?

    This Pope certainly wanted his friend to be treated with profound respect.

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  7. Dwayne Bartles

    What I’d be curious to know was why he had a Catholic funeral if he was, you know, an evangelical Protestant. Was it something he has asked for, or was it imposed on him by his Catholic survivors? (That kind of an imposition would strike me as something very un-ecumenical masquerading as just the opposite.) I can’t at all figure out why a person would want a Catholic funeral in death if he had no interest in becoming Catholic in life. Something smells fishy here, I’m afraid.

    Reply
    1. Fritz Bauerschmidt

      @Dwayne Bartles – comment #7:
      His wife and children are Catholic, so I’m guessing that was the connection.

      Cardinal Kasper celebrated the funeral Mass of Brother Roger Schutz of Taizé, who was a Reformed pastor, so there is precedent for this sort of thing (and, I would note, this was during the papacy of Benedict XVI, who seems to have gotten no credit—or criticism—for making a bold, ecumenical gesture).

      Reply
      1. Rita Ferrone Avatar
        Rita Ferrone

        @Fritz Bauerschmidt – comment #8:
        Is there any indication Pope Benedict was involved, Fritz? I don’t remember that he was, but perhaps I missed it. If Pope Benedict didn’t get credit or blame it could be because he was not on record as “making a bold ecumenical gesture” concerning the funeral. There’s a difference between not stopping something, and intervening to assure that something will happen.

        The article to which your comment linked says Benedict gave Brother Roger communion at Pope John Paul II’s funeral, which is an ecumenical gesture. But that is considerably less bold. I know of cases where bishops and priests have considered a funeral to be an exceptional situation which allows for inter-communion. And maybe he just didn’t want to deny him communion on the spot. Can’t think of a situation, however, in which the funeral of a bishop of another communion was treated in this way.

      2. Stanislaus Kosala

        @Rita Ferrone – comment #9:

        Brother Roger received holy communion at Catholic liturgies often, including from the hands of John Paul II on more than one occasion.
        As for Benedict’s involvement in the funeral of Brother Roger, he explicitly sent Cardinal Kasper as his own personal representative.
        Benedict also made the following statement about Brother Roger:
        “In this time of sadness, we cannot but confide to the goodness of the Lord the soul of his faithful servant. We know that from sadness (…) joy will be reborn. Brother Schütz is in the hands of eternal goodness and eternal love. He has come to eternal joy. He reminds and exhorts us to always be faithful workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, even in sad situations, in the certainty that the Lord accompanies us and will give us his joy”.

  8. Fritz Bauerschmidt

    Rita, my point was that Pope’s seem to get credited/blamed for all sorts of things that they are only tangentially related to, largely based on the predispositions of those doing the crediting and/or blaming.

    Reply
  9. John Schuster-Craig

    The Bishop of Autun – where Taize is located – admitted Brother Roger to communion in the early 1970s. I am Lutheran, so correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that this is within a Bishop’s authority. At a youth meeting in Rome in 1980, Brother Roger stated that “I have found my own identity as a Christian by reconciling…the faith of my origins with the mystery of the Catholic faith.” It is my understanding that Brother Roger received the sacrament at Catholic celebrations on any number of occasions, not just at John Paul II’s funeral.

    Reply
    1. Stanislaus Kosala

      @John Schuster-Craig – comment #12:
      Here is a link to a very interesting interview with Cardinal Kasper concerning Br. Roger’s status:
      http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/206302?eng=y

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      1. John Schuster-Craig

        @Stanislaus Kosala – comment #13:
        Thank you so much for the link – this is the fullest explanation I have seen in explaining Br. Roger’s relationship with the Catholic church. (I find it interesting that he is referred to as “Fr. Roger.”) I also find it interesting in reading through this thread and the various links links referred to, that Pope Benedict XVI had far more wide-ranging ecumenical interests than many of us would have suspected.

    2. Matthew Roth

      @John Schuster-Craig – comment #12:
      Indeed, the Code of Canon Law does include such a provision.

      Reply
  10. Matthew Roth

    I think there is a difference between a) celebrating the funeral Mass for Tony Palmer as a non-Catholic Christian, b) celebrating it, but using the orations for a deceased bishop and c) admitting Brother Roger to Holy Communion. The last allowed in the Code of Canon Law if the Ordinary allows it in specific circumstances. The first should always be done, or at least as much as possible. Mass may be offered for anyone, living or deceased. A funeral may be given to all the baptized. We just ought to be careful (like we should at all funerals) in the way we approach it. The second, however, poses a contradiction to the current Catholic teaching on the lack of apostolic succession in Anglican, Reformed, and other Protestant communities.

    Reply

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