>>>>The source in Venezuela told CNA that during the last weeks of his life, Chavez requested spiritual direction and asked to receive the sacraments. <<<<
Faced with his impending death Hugo Chavez requested spiritual direction and asked to receive the Sacraments, one of which is reconciliation/absolution.
However poorly he lived his faith in Jesus, he did profess such a faith in Him and on his deathbed did come to the Church before he died.
That is enough to have a Catholic funeral. The funeral is the final prayer for the soul of someone, not an endorsement nor a golden ticket to heaven.
The Church did exactly what it is to do by praying for the repose of his soul. Is there something wrong with that?
As i clarified here (see post 15 ) deathbed conversions are possible, but as with Ted Kennedy and others, what is not to be argued is whether they could have found grace unto effectually repentant faith, but that there is no manifest substance for it outside taking in rituals which they did before, while manifestly being anti-Christian.
Politicians especially have shown how easily they can separate what they profess from what they practice, likely supposing they can con God as they do men, and how receiving sacraments does not signify repentance. In a similar situation, when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptised by John, he said unto them, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. (Mt. 3:7,8) For Scripture requires one to "repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance," (Acts 26:20)
The Church did exactly what it is to do by praying for the repose of his soul. Is there something wrong with that?
If that is all a RC funeral was then there would not be canon law that forbids it for such a manifest sinner, as many RCs argue and as this priest did in regards to Ted Kennedy (quite similar to Chavez) on this FR thread.
A RC funeral is "the last farewell by which the Christian community greets one of its members before his body is brought to its tomb," (CCC 1690) and thus it is another example of how Rome treats the most nominal RCs as members in life and in death, despite conservative RCs considering them excommunicated.
Thus your contention is with them and not simply me. See post 22