to think taking photos of someone in a coffin is the height of disrespect?

And if a scandal breaks that she wasn’t actually in the coffin, I will not be at all surprised, with all the lying and deception of Her Majesty’s government. Incidentally, someone I knew who queued to file past the coffin had something confiscated by security, which was… hand sanitiser! Moments after Her Majesty’s government was preaching at us to use it all the time.

@ItGhoul thank you, it’s interesting to read about. In my instance, it’s not the cultural or societal norm. I think people need to grieve in their own way, regardless of norms, but in my particular instance it was very sickening and felt violating. I know family members who’ve wanted to bring the body home to spend time with it. Totally understandable, but too frowned upon where I am unfortunately.

To the poster who thought that as a catholic, it is desecration of the body to be cremated. I am catholic and wish to be cremated and I knew quite a few catholics who were cremated.
What I find disrespectful is a body rotting away in the ground as worm food ,and a neglected grave is one of the saddest things to see.
Each to their own.

But he’s on the telly where everyone can see him anyway

@DrPrunesqualer It’s extremely rare in the UK to have the body at home.

No it’s not.

The Uk is not England. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

@TheTigerWhoCameToBrunch

Catholics are allowed now by canon law to be cremated.
They are not allowed to keep the ashes at home or in a crematorium.
The ages must be buried in consecrated ground

I would imagine ( just a guess here ) the Swiss Guard have been told to respect peoples grief.

I think it depends upon intent. Taking a picture at the site of a major disaster like 9/11 or Auschwitz isn’t itself disrespectful but if you’re grinning and taking a selfie there it is. Similarly there are ways to respect the dead and ways to disrespect them but taking a photo isn’t automatically bad

Is it not more disrespectful to go against the wishes of the deceased if they chose a cremation? My parents had funeral plans ( dad has died , mum has dementia)
DH and I have funeral plans .
Our DC know our wishes

If it’s not the done thing where you live or in your culture, then it was disrespectful of your relative.

However, social norms are not the same worldwide. There are countries and cultures where it is a social norm to take memento photographs of open coffins and where it would not be considered disrespectful at all.

(It was actually very, very normal here in the UK up until the early 1900s too. People used to hire photographers to come and photograph their dead family members. Sometimes in their coffin, sometimes in the death bed itself, and sometimes literally posed on a chair, dressed and propped up. In many such photos, the corpse is posed with family members, especially when it’s a child. I’ve seen a late Victorian death portrait of a child standing beside a chair on which sits the dead body of his identical twin.)

I wouldn’t know about Scotland.
We’re England and Ireland

Agree no one is stopping it.
Im just pointing out its not a cultural thing as people keep saying this.

Not rare at all, especially in Scotland.

@Sofiewoo I’m a Catholic
Whilst my grandad was at home for a three day wake and taken straight from there to church this was in Ireland in the 80s.
These days the body is left in the church the night before the funeral. Family can sit with the body through the night in the church.
It’s extremely rare in the UK to have the body at home. Of all the family and friends that have passed away not one had a home wake. We got together for a big ‘do’ afterwards, not before.

It truly is a brave new world.

No one is stopping it though, presumably, otherwise op wouldn’t have seen it happening. If it’s against Vatican rules they would need to enforce them. If they don’t I don’t see that it matters whether it’s allowed or not

It absolutely is a cultural thing, though. Just because you don’t like it, or are not used to it, that doesn’t mean it’s considered wrong everywhere.

Someone took a photo of my close relatives hand, filtered it, and POSTED it on Facebook. The most, distasteful, low brow, despicable thing a person could do. It’s a social norm to just ‘know’ when something isn’t the done thing. It’s not the done thing.

It is cultural but in fact you are not allowed to photograph the Pope.
You can photograph anyone else in a coffin, just not the Pope.

Totally agree, I hated that I had limited viewing time with my parents and in such a clinical setting. I’m fine with death and I think to accept it we need to normalise it. I love the idea of everyone coming to visit, laughing, kissing goodbye, having lots of conversations about them while being sat with them. Feels like a proper goodbye and closure.

As a Catholic I can confirm you are not allowed to photograph the Pope in his sick or death bed.
This from the Catholic News when Pope Francis was ill
Pope John Paul forbade it in 1996

I think it’s cultural. Once a relative asked me if I wanted pictures of a close relative’s funeral. I said sure (thinking will be pics of the gathering, flowers etc). Didn’t expect the pics of open casket I got instead.

As a Scottish catholic we have a 5 day rosary, (vigal).

3 days at home with our loved one where family and friends come and pay their respects and have tea and sandwiches (normally in the living room)

3rd day, the priest comes and does a rosary at home. (Normally on an evening)

4th day - Priest, family and friends transport the body (reception of the body) to the church with friends and family walking behind the coffin.

5th day - Funeral mass and coffin transport to the burial site.

I say this as a Scottish catholic , as in my experience living in England , they don’t really tend to do this.

Sorry edited as pressed too soon, it’s definitely cultural.

It's cultural

No I don't. My friend died aged 43. He had no family so his friends arranged his funeral and we all took photos of him in his coffin for our memories and we treasure them. We kissed him too. We wanted him to be surrounded by his friends at the end and several were with him when he died.
It's perfectly normal for people to do this in Italy. Depends on the culture and religion.
I think we have a very strange attitude to death in the UK. It's very shut off.