Ashes of decedent- how to dispose

[Kielbasi]

I was left the effects of an old friend, including an urn containing the ashes of someone I never met in life.

I don’t know if they were Catholic in this life, and they passed on 20 years ago. Is there a proper way to deal with this, I don’t think I want to keep them around and leaving them for the city to haul away seems improper.

 

[ktm]

Kielbasi:

I was left the effects of an old friend, including an urn containing the ashes of someone I never met in life.

I don’t know if they were Catholic in this life, and they passed on 20 years ago. Is there a proper way to deal with this, I don’t think I want to keep them around and leaving them for the city to haul away seems improper.

Yes, it’s called a proper burial. It’s gravely immoral to have an urn with a deceased person’s ashes on your mantle, or to spread them in the garden, throw them in the garbage, put them in the litter box, or do anything else but treat them as human remains, which they are. You wouldn’t toss grandma’s corpse in the garbage or bury her in the garden, would you?

On a more practical level, I would call your priest and ask him what arrangements can be made for the “cremains”.