This brings up an interesting question that Catholis should discuss, is it fine to pray for the unfaithful departed?

This is my understanding and please correct me if you can show that I am wrong:

Anyone who has died outside the Church, like the priest in this pathetically sad case, CANNOT have an ecclesiastical burrial and is ASSUMED to have died outside the Church. (This is also assuming that he was not reconciled with the Church by a true priest before he died) However, we don't know what happened at the moment of his death and whether he made an act of perfect contrition.

Praying for him as one of the faithful departed is wrong, however, it seems to me, we can say some prayers for the repose of his soul on the slim chance that he did in fact make an act of perfect contrition before he died and left this world in the state of sanctifying grace. Those prayers would not be waisted if he ultimately went to hell since they would be applied to the pour souls in purgatory.

The origin of hte Gregorian 30 day masses involves Pope St. Gregory praying for an excommunicated monk. His excommunication was not lifted while he lived. While we may conjecture about Fr. Griglak, and we may be right we could also be wrong. I think it is better to err in favor of praying for the souls in Purgatory.    

He believes in it now.

Knows.

Maybe Poche would like to get the cut rate Novus Ordo at only $240 seen at https://www.seraphicmass.org/gregorian_masses.asp

According to the account given at this linked article the monk in question, Justus, actually made a "serious repentance" before he died.  Further, there is no specific mention that the monk was actually excommunicated, although he was ordered to solitary confinement.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/d014rp30Gregorian_Somerville.html

The word I heard used was excommunicatoin. 

Okay, okay... he was excommunicated.

How likely was he to get out of that?

It took St. Pope Gregory to lift the excommunication, and the 30 consecutive Masses to get him into Heaven.

Did Francis do anything similar for Nancy ?

If he did I am unaware of it. I just want to remind you that we will all one day have to meet our maker. How will we pass the judgement? If we get what we deserved we might wind up in Hell. If we take advantage of the mercy that Jesus offers to us by going to mass and recieving the sacrements regularly tehn maybe we will escape the fires of Hell, but will we escape the fires of Purgatory? We could be sitting in Purgatory saying to ourselves, "Oh if only somebody would pray for me." 
Even when the judge condemns a man to death for a horrible crime he traditioinally ends his sentence by saying , "And may God have mercy on your soul." 

Poche, I agree with you.

But, St. Paul tells us the first sin is apostasy of the Faith, then the sinner is allowed to fall into perversions.

There needs to be the scary, sobering recognition of those who unwittingly allowed themselves to loose their minds.

We are too liberal and soft.

The Romeo & Juliet play is a good example. 
At the time it was written, Catholics knew the damning implications of their joint ѕυιcιdєs.
But modern standards have made the story line romantic, without consequences.

"… unwittingly… " ?

The theology of Poche believes that Saints and unrepentant sinners both will all be in heaven.

No, the theology of Poche means that unless we have some kind of private revelation, we do not know teh final disposition of anybody's soul. Therefore I pray for the repose of those who have died, that God will give me a merciful judgement when I die. And if I have to spend time in Purgatory that it will be very short.   

There is a related story that carried into more modern times. In 1871 there  was an atheist who emmigrated to Brazil from France. He had a wife and two daughters. His wife wanted to take the daughters to church but the husband refused. One day he went to open his pharmacy liek he always did every morning and he dropped dead. His wife sold the pharmacy and returned to France. She brought her daughters to church and one of them entered the convent. This particular convent sent her to America. It was in 1932 in New Jersey that this sister was at mass when she heard the following words; "REjoice and be glad. Today is the day that your father enters Heaven. Great is the mercy of God." 
YOu see every day at every mass she prayed for the eternal repose of her father.