Requiescat in Pace: Analysis of the Rules on the Prohibition of Funerals during the COVID-19 Emergency in Italy (Presentation Slides)

Abstract

For centuries art, music, and literature have described the individual and collective backlash due to a pandemic, even though today our society has forgotten these circumstances, thanks to the medical and technological advancement, with all the systemic consequences entailed to the difficulty of stopping the contagion, including burials.In a small village in the Italian countryside an elderly person passed away, it is not known whether or not affected by COVID-19, but due to the contagion and the rules that prohibited public, religious or civil cerimonies, the lady's funeral was not able to take place according to the usual ritual and with the collective participation of family members and the local community. The announcement of her death and her leave-taking were given in a completely exceptional way: instead of the usual affiche published by the funeral home and payed by the family, the announcement was made through Facebook, from the mayor's page, in a participatory and emotional tone, with a mixture of secularism and religion: “This morning we gave our last farewell at the cemetary to Ms. XX, aged ..., mother of YX, her home was at …. Her remains were blessed by the priest. The Mayor was there in representation of all those who would have liked to participate, and who were unable since the restrictions for the ongoing coronavirus emergency. The condolences of all our community to the family. The Mayor". Another image that became well-known worldwide concerned the row of military trucks that carried the coffins of the deceased people from the cemetery of Bergamo (one of the most affected places in Italy) to the cremation sites in other regions.These sad episodes show of how much the ban forbidding public funeral of whom passed away was intrusive and affected entire communities, both in countryside villages, and in towns.The farewell cerimonies to deceased is a deeply felt moment, where the communities gather together with the affected family for helping each other to mourne the beloved one who passed away: in fact the burial of the deads is a universal rule. Between 9 March and 4 May 2020, Italian law was very intrusive in this severance, forbidding funerals with criminal penalties. Although the Italian state is increasingly secularized, the farewell cerimonies are still strongly linked to religious tradition, although secular rites are growing.The aim of this abstract is to verify what was the impact in Italy of the interdictive legal rules about funeral ceremonies on the life of people who have suffered individuals and, at the same time, collective mourning.