To receive this sacrament, please call the Parish Office (714) 540-2214 and the secretary will take down your information so that a priest may contact you directly.
After office hours, the voice mail menu will offer you several options. In the case of an emergency press “3” and leave a brief message including the name of the sick person and your phone number. The priest on duty will be paged. Please give your phone number slowly and clearly.
Please accept our sympathies at the death of your loved one. When someone has died, the first step is to contact a mortuary to prepare the body for the funeral rites. There are mortuaries advertised on the back of our weekly bulletin. Please specify Saint John the Baptist in Costa Mesa as the church to hold the funeral Mass and to perform the Graveside Service. If Military Honors at the burial are desired, make this known to the mortuary so that they can arrange it.
Typically, the priest who is scheduled to be on duty the day of the funeral will perform the services and contact you for information about the deceased.
We encourage you to download and read our FUNERAL GUIDELINES AND READINGS to see the options for family participation at the funeral Mass. Then complete and return the FUNERAL PLANNING WORKSHEET.
If you wish, the funeral liturgy can be livestreamed. Click HERE for information.
If a Vigil Service is desired, it may take the form of a Scripture service, recitation of the Rosary or both. The Vigil Service usually takes place with the body of the deceased present at the mortuary on the evening preceding the Funeral Mass. This service is typically conducted by a Bereavement Minister of the parish.
The preferred places for Eulogies by family members and friends is at the Vigil Service or Graveside Service, not at the Funeral Mass. These words of remembrance are most effective when they do not try to be a complete history of the individual and from three to five minutes in length each.
The Church prefers that cremation take place after the Funeral Mass. If this is not possible, the Church allows for the Funeral Mass to be celebrated with the cremated remains of the body present.
Cremated remains are to be treated with the same respect given to the human body. Furthermore, the Catholic Church requires that cremated remains be “preserved in a sacred space.” This includes the use of a worthy vessel/urn which is to be buried in a grave or entombed in a mausoleum.
Scattering the cremated remains, keeping them at home or dividing them up among family members is not allowed.
There are two Church documents explaining this teaching – one from the Vatican issued in 2016, and the other from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued in 2023.
The Vatican document emphasizes the Catholic Church's recommendation to follow "the most ancient Christian tradition" of the pious practice of burying the dead in cemeteries or other sacred places, as it is considered one of the corporal works of mercy and, mirroring the burial of Christ, more clearly expresses hope in the resurrection when the person's body and soul will be reunited.
Anonymous burial or scattering of ashes is not compatible with the Christian faith, according to the instruction. Preserving the ashes of the departed in a sacred place "ensures that they are not excluded from the prayers and remembrance of their family or the Christian community" and "it prevents any unfitting or superstitious practices."
"The conservation of ashes of the departed in a domestic residence is not permitted," the 2016 instruction said. "Only in grave and exceptional cases dependent on cultural conditions of a localized nature, may the Ordinary, in agreement with the Episcopal Conference or the Synod of Bishops of the Oriental Churches, concede permission for the conservation of the ashes of the departed in a domestic residence."
"The ashes may not be divided among various family members and due respect must be maintained regarding the circumstances of such a conservation," it said.
Following are links to the two documents:
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20160815_ad-resurgendum-cum-christo_en.html
https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/vatican-offers-further-guidance-handling-cremains