Priest and rabbi celebrate funeral together

Father Gregor was called by the family of an elderly Polish-Russian lady who had died. He was asked to come and bury her as she had been a Catholic. Father Gregor, with his habitual apostolic zeal, immediately agreed and set off for the kibbutz cemetery where she was to be buried. He was surprised and yet pleased to discover that a Reform rabbi had also been invited to the funeral. The family saw no problem in the two clerics celebrating the funeral together as their mother was Catholic but they see themselves as Jewish Israelis. The deceased woman’s children are all married to Jews and her grandchildren all considered themselves fully Jewish.

Whereas the funeral rite was conducted according to the Catholic rite, the Jewish rabbi also prayed at the graveside and the son of the deceased said kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Father Gregor reports that the rabbi was as accepting as he was of the complex identity of the woman and her family and the two clerics collaborated fully in honoring the deceased and respecting the wishes of the family.