Bishop Paul Connell of Ardagh and Clonmacnois moved to clarify new diocesan guidelines after reports suggested he had banned removals from parish churches entirely. He hasn't. What he has done is draw a line: open-coffin wakes will no longer take place inside churches in his diocese.

The distinction matters, both liturgically and culturally. The traditional removal service, in which a closed coffin is brought to the church the evening before a funeral Mass, remains unchanged. Remains may repose overnight in the church in a closed coffin with, as the bishop put it, "no difficulty whatsoever."

What the new guidelines curtail is the use of the church itself as a wake venue, with an open coffin and the customs that accompany it. The guidelines describe such use as "inappropriate given the sacred nature of the building and in particular the presence of the blessed sacrament."

What prompted the guidelines

One unnamed priest in the diocese told the Irish Independent that practices surrounding the use of churches for wakes had "got out of hand," adding that "some very strange practices had developed." The specifics weren't elaborated, but the implication is clear enough: a gap had opened between what a parish church is consecrated for and what some parishioners had begun treating it as.

Fr Tom Cox, a spokesperson for the diocese, said Bishop Connell had been anxious to clarify the purpose of a church. Clergy and parish councils were consulted about the guidelines before they were issued.

For families who want a traditional wake with an open coffin, the diocese has offered an alternative. The guidelines state that using parish halls, parish centres, or other parish properties for reposing is "quite acceptable and poses no difficulty." The wake isn't being abolished. It's being relocated to a more appropriate setting.

A bishop who actually governs

Something is refreshing about a bishop who issues clear guidelines and then stands behind them. Bishop Connell stated the diocese was "anxious to facilitate" parishioners "whatever way we can, particularly at the most sensitive time of a bereavement." That is pastoral language paired with institutional resolve, a combination that has grown rare in Western churches terrified of seeming rigid.

The modern impulse, inside and outside religion, is to let every boundary dissolve in the name of accommodation. A church becomes a community centre becomes a multipurpose hall becomes whatever anyone wants it to be at any given moment. The theological term for this is nothing, because theology requires that spaces and rituals mean something specific.

Bishop Connell is making a modest claim: a church is a sacred space, and its use should reflect that. The blessed sacrament is present. The building has a purpose that predates any individual family's preferences, however deeply felt those preferences may be. Honoring the dead and honoring the sacred are not in conflict, but they do require different settings when the customs of one begin to encroach on the nature of the other.

The coffin remains closed

The bishop was explicit on the liturgical point. As he noted: "The coffin remains closed during this removal service as it does during the funeral mass."

This isn't a new rule. It is a restatement of what the Catholic funeral rite has always looked like in practice. The clarification was necessary only because the line between wake and liturgy had apparently blurred in some parishes to the point where the two were being merged inside the church building itself.

Tradition requires someone willing to maintain it

Conservatives, religious and secular alike, understand that traditions don't maintain themselves. They require people in positions of authority willing to say "this, not that" and absorb the inevitable complaints. Every institution that has abandoned this principle, from universities to corporations to mainline Protestant denominations, has watched its distinct identity dissolve into a shapeless accommodation of whatever the loudest voices demand.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has faced enormous challenges to its authority and credibility in recent decades. That history makes it tempting for bishops to avoid any decision that might generate a negative headline. Bishop Connell chose clarity instead. He told his parishioners what a church is for, offered practical alternatives for what it isn't for, and explained his reasoning.

No one is being denied a wake. No one is being denied a funeral. The dead will be honored. The sacred will be preserved. That shouldn't be controversial, but in an age that treats every boundary as an affront, even common sense requires a bishop willing to say it out loud.