Christmas for the Vatican, and many Italian Catholics, has been marred by controversy over the Church’s refusal to give a Christian burial to Piergiorgio Welby, the 60-year-old muscular dystrophy sufferer from Rome who died last week.

Mr Welby, who had been ill since he was 16, was paralysed for two decades and for the past five years had been kept alive by a tube in his throat that pumped air into his lungs.

For years he had publicly demanded to be allowed to die, and on Wednesday a doctor, Mario Riccio, finally sedated him and turned off the air pump.

The Church had always taken a stand against Mr Welby’s demands to be allowed to die. However, no one expected the Rome diocese, of which the Pope is bishop, to deny him a Catholic funeral rite. The decision was seen as pointlessly cruel by many Catholics, although others defended it as a question of principle.

Those who commit suicide are usually granted a church funeral on the assumption that they were temporarily insane. But Mr Welby’s campaign was apparently too sane to be forgiven by the Church.

The Church said that his “will to end his life was known, as it had been repeated and publicly affirmed, in contrast to Catholic doctrine”. Euthanasia in Italy can be punished by up to 15 years in prison.

A lay funeral was held on Sunday in the piazza outside Mr Welby’s parish church, where his family had hoped to conduct the ceremony. Hundreds of people attended.

His 91-year-old mother declared: “They [the Church] continue to insult him after his death.” Mina, his wife, said: “Dear Piero, can’t you see this is a triumph? Even the sadness has left me, for I feel that you are happy, that you are free.”

At the same time, the Pope addressed a crowd in St Peter’s Square and said: “We must accept life from its beginning to its natural sunset.” In his Christmas message yesterday, he added: “What are we to think of those who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life?”

Francesca, a Roman resident who went to St Peter’s to hear the Pope, said: “I am profoundly Catholic and I understand the Church’s decision. But I also understand a Catholic who, after decades of unbelievable suffering, decides to return to the Lord. In normal circumstances, nobody would have objected to Welby being allowed to die. But the fact that it became a political issue, echoed by the media, pushed the Church to this harsh decision.”

Giovanna, a young mother with her husband, Ugo, and six-week-old baby, Giuseppe, agreed. “The Church’s decision was shabby and cruel,” she said. “Welby had suffered so much — what right does the Church have to disrespect him in his final choice?”

Francesco, who runs one of the many souvenir shops around the piazza, was more explicit: “The Church should change, on this subject as well as on things like condoms to stop Aids in Africa. Today the priests have a bad conscience.”

However, Paolo, a traffic policeman on duty, said: “The Church has its rules, and the Church did what it had to do to make sure these rules continue to be respected.”

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