Polish Orthodox Church establishes burial rites for stillborn and unborn children

Members of the Holy Synod of the Polish Orthodox Church, meeting in Warsaw last week, established the burial rites for children who die at birth or before birth.

Responding to enquiries from Polish Orthodox Christians in the Kraków area concerning the burial of stillborn children, the Synod clarified that the mandatory practice established in the Orthodox Church is for these children to be laid to rest following a brief prayer for them and a prayer for their parents, invoking God’s mercy. The Divine Liturgy is not to be celebrated.

On this occasion, the Polish hierarchs also reaffirmed that the Church does not permit the cremation of the bodies of the departed.

Polish law recognises the humanity of unborn children In Poland, the remains of children who are stillborn or die before birth are regarded under the law as human remains, regardless of the stage of pregnancy, and may not be treated as medical waste.

Consequently, the bodies of these children cannot be incinerated together with medical waste.

In many cases, hospitals notify social welfare institutions, which take responsibility for the children’s remains and arrange collective burials in public cemeteries, in…