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If a murder happens in a church...

10 replies

BresciaBike · 10/03/2024 23:40

...does it need to be reconsecrated? I wonder if reverends/priests would feel the need to "cleanse" it as such.

OP posts:
ChanelNo19EDT · 10/03/2024 23:54

Has that happened? I suppose it has, somewhere. I don't know though.

BresciaBike · 10/03/2024 23:57

Undoubtedly has! However, not recently afaik, I'm watching Hannibal season 3 😉

Then again, with the murders on this show you'd want the area blessed church or no church.

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YetAnotherSpartacus · 10/03/2024 23:57

Midsomer and surrounding villages on a regular basis...

VeniVidiWeeWee · 11/03/2024 00:05

ChanelNo19EDT · 10/03/2024 23:54

Has that happened? I suppose it has, somewhere. I don't know though.

Thomas a Becket.

lifeisawillow3 · 11/03/2024 00:07

This has happened in the originals and the church was closed down. I know it's a tv show though 😅

alexdgr8 · 11/03/2024 00:12

there was a hideous case in scotland a few years ago.
a rc church, with a caretaker who had a terrible past, unbeknown to the church.
not sure where exactly the murder happened, but believe the deposition site was in the loft.
i'm not sure now, but somewhere concealed in the building.
i imagine any religious person would want some kind of prayer or (re)dedication after such evil.

BresciaBike · 11/03/2024 00:17

@alexdgr8 oh are you thinking of Peter Tobin? Yes, that was on church grounds and the woman, Angelika Kluk, was dumped under the church floor

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APurpleSquirrel · 11/03/2024 00:24

It happened at the Duomo in Florence (admittedly in 1478) when the Pazzi conspiracy attempted to murder the Medici brothers - they succeeded in killing one plus some others. I'm watching Medici on Netflix & playing AC2 which both cover it.
I assume it probably did need to be re consecrated. Though it didn't help that the Pope at the time was also involved! Confused

Testina · 11/03/2024 00:34

If you had a process whereby you had to re-consecrate it, surely then you’d be saying that the force of evil that was responsible for the act was stronger than God himself? That wouldn’t make sense at all. I’d have thought there’d to prayers for it, that’s all.

SarahAndQuack · 11/03/2024 00:54

There is a lot of discussion of how, and when, churches might be considered violated/in need of reconsecration in Catholic canon law; violence as well as murder is considered (as is adultery, and material destruction). Gratian's Decretum is one of the standard references; it states that after an act of violence a church should be cleansed and reconsecrated. People then get into all sorts of debate as to what counts as violence - murder does, but also deliberate bloodshed (but not, say, smacking your disobedient child so he has a massive nosebleed ...). There are services specifically for reconsecration after violence.

In the Church of England the situation was initially more vague, because the rite of consecration itself was a bit contested (the Protestant reformers tended to think it was a Catholic practice in and of itself). I don't honestly know what the situation would be today.

It will vary in other types of church too, I'd imagine.

If you had a process whereby you hadto re-consecrate it, surely then you’d be saying that the force of evil that was responsible for the act was stronger than God himself? That wouldn’t make sense at all. I’d have thought there’d to prayers for it, that’s all.

I don't think so. You also reconsecrate a church in the Catholic rite if it has been substantially and suddenly damaged (eg., burnt or hit by an earthquake or something). It's not about evil specifically, but about anything that disrupts the unified sanctity of the building.

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