Cremation

[Like]

Well, I certainly pray HMC does not do away with cremation before I pass away. I worked for a funeral home in south TX in the late 50’s, when they still were the ambulance people. The funeral director prayed those poor injured people from auto collisions or what ever type of accident were killed so they might get the body(s) for a funeral. It is all about MONEY!!! Whats a family going to do when the funeral director has them as a captive grieving love ones, recommending & showing all the nice caskets & all the beautiful things they will do for your loved one.

We lost a daughter 2 years ago in New Mexico and she had made it known that she wanted to be cremated, which we were totally against at the time. Her husband & children had the say so. It cost less than $1000. Her family insisted we take her remains back here to Hawaii as they knew how much she loved it here, so we did. We took her remains to our Church for the priest to bless her. We brought her home and built a beautiful shrine in our living room & put her on the top between a stature of our Lady & Jesus.

We had her for about a year & only after coming to these CA forums did we find that she had to still be buried (our parish did NOT know). The least expensive burial of her & the urn here on Kauai was over $8000. We contacted another one of our daughters back in NM & upon her checking with her husband & kids to see if they had any objections & then a cemetery there for under $500 for everything necessary, we shipped her back there for about $60.

I now have a will of sorts that when I die I wish to be cremated and sent to NM for burial. And as long as the Church approves of cremation, that’s the way I & most of our family now want to go.

Give me a graveside service & have a Mass said for me then or later.

I wouldn’t mind a wake in one of our kid’s home, but I would hope it be joyous and not sorrowful.

 

[rjs1]

Most of the people posting on this forum are still ignoring the fact that the Church prefers burial not cremation. As I quoted before, Canon Law says:

**The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.

**Can you imagine the body of a Saint being cremated? Never. Can you imagine a pope being cremated? There would be an outcry.

Why do the second best thing to honour the body when burial is the prefered option? If cost is a problem then demand changes in the American funeral industry.

 

[Dempsey1919]

Most of the people posting on this forum are still ignoring the fact that the Church prefers burial not cremation.

I prefer burial, but you must remember that some people simply cannot afford an expensive funeral. The people in this thread who favour cremation do so because of the ridiculous costs of a burial and not because they are making a statement. I am sure most Catholics would opt for burial if the price was not so high.

 

[Like]

I prefer burial, but you must remember that some people simply cannot afford an expensive funeral. The people in this thread who favour cremation do so because of the ridiculous costs of a burial and not because they are making a statement. I am sure most Catholics would opt for burial if the price was not so high.

You got it Dempsey!

Mahalo!

 

[Methodi]

Most of the people posting on this forum are still ignoring the fact that the Church prefers burial not cremation. As I quoted before, Canon Law says:

**The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.

**Can you imagine the body of a Saint being cremated? Never. Can you imagine a pope being cremated? There would be an outcry.

Why do the second best thing to honour the body when burial is the prefered option? If cost is a problem then demand changes in the American funeral industry.

How many times have we heard about cemetaries being unearthed & housing projects etc being built upon the ground, stop & think if all the people who died before us were buried & the cemetaries still remained, we would have instead of a spaghetti bowl of highways , we would have a spaghetti bowl of cemetaries, just my point of view

 

[JKirkLVNV]

Most of the people posting on this forum are still ignoring the fact that the Church prefers burial not cremation. As I quoted before, Canon Law says:

The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.

I don’t think people are ignoring it. I think people are availing themselves of the choice permitted them by the Church. Yes, canon law says the Church “earnestly recommends” burial. The same canon permits cremation with a specific caveat. As long as that caveat is observed, there doesn’t seem to be a problem.

 

[mark_a]

My father was cremated and when my mother dies, she will be too. And she specified that their ashes wil be mixed as they spent the better part of their lives together, why not spend eternity together too.
Kathy

The Church does not see commingling, apportionment, or scattering as an acceptable practice.

The Catholic Church believes the integrity of the human person requires unified disposition. As a body would never be apportioned, neither should cremated remains.

Despite all the cultural and popular impulses to do this, the Catholic Church does not see commingling as an acceptable practice. To be together forever does not require commingling, just as full-body burials are never done in the same casket.

A Catholic cemetery never has a scattering area because the Catholic Church holds that one person’s cremated remains should be kept in tact and integral in a unified disposition. Just as a human body is not separated for burial, nor should cremated remains be scattered.

 

[Joysong]

Katie1723:

My father was cremated and when my mother dies, she will be too. And she specified that their ashes wil be mixed as they spent the better part of their lives together, why not spend eternity together too.

I don’t know how this could be possible, because the cremains must be buried. If they are being saved in an urn someplace, this is not a proper burial.

There is a possibility of uniting them by purchasing one plot and having both parents buried in the same plot, even though the burial itself is separate. That way, one stone can be purchased and inscribed with both names, as well. I hope nobody is offended, but the cremains are placed in a very disposable container and would probably be disintegrated and become part of the earth by the time your mother dies. Burial plots are large enough to accomodate a full size casket in addition to previously cremated remains, if the choice would happen to change later.

Incidentallly, FYI, this is the teaching from the CCC:

2301 Autopsies can be morally permitted for legal inquests or scientific research. The free gift of organs after death is legitimate and can be meritorious.
The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.

 

[jblake]

rjs1;:

If cost is a problem then demand changes in the American funeral industry.

Believe it or not, the funeral industry has changed practices. The legislation that required that each cost be itemized, and the consumer allowed to accept/reject a specific service, has enabled one to cut costs.

What really is needed is a change to that of wrapping the body in sack cloth, and burying it. No coffin. No embalming. No titivation of the body.

xan

jonathon

 

[josethekke]

From a traditional Catholic viewpoint, I’m wondering what people think about cremation. My husband and I both have it in our wills to be cremated, but I’m considering asking him to change this. I don’t know, it just seems so disrespectful.

What do you all think?

I think cremation is fine even if buried remains will be removed from the graveyard in due course for burial of others

 

[JMMK]

I might be wrong, but to my understanding in places like Japan where land is at a premium, it has been the practice in the Church there to cremate the remains as oft as not. Under the churches are mausoleums of urns. True with cremation you don’t get the miracle of incorruptibility, but that is really minor in the scheme of salvation history.

 

[John_Walsh]

My mom was cremated this past Feb. It is also the choice of my dad,(84 yrs.,living w/Alzheimer’s). Ashes are in a memorial garden on church grounds.
They are in FL due to disability & burial brought the question of cost & where. In FL or Pennsylvania with transportation & having to go back to choose & purchase plots.
Mom wanted people to remember her as she was, (cheerfull, vibrant, lighthearted and serious when needed with her 6 challenges w/bodies) & not to focus on the last years & her in the ground.

I plan the same course, hopefully after outliving dad who keeps on tickin’. I don’t know if he’s Timex or Eveready!

 

[RB2]

The question of cremation is a question of a discipline, not of an immutable truth. The Church may, and has, changed her policy on this, and may change it further in the future (composing rites specific to cremation, for example).

The God Who created the world *ex nihilo, *the God Who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs out of our parents’ DNA, can certainly resurect us out of ashes. The question of “respect” is a totally relative one. When I was in college, we had a mortician come and speak to a health class I was taking. He was reticent about telling us what the process for preparation for burial and viewing was, but we genuinely wanted to know and he was apparently convinced that we did, because he told us…in great detail. I will not relate what he said in this thread, because I think it would bother people to know these things. I have a problem contemplating burial anyway, as I’m a bit claustraphobic (yes, I know I’ll be dead, but still), but at that time, I remember thinking that being reduced to nice, clean ash sounded infinitely preferable. Respect for a body could not possibly be encompassed by what that gentleman described. Of course, we don’t HAVE to be embalmed or viewed, etc., but if one is to BE viewed by one’s family, embalming is somewhat necessary (if not actually kind). I fail to see what is inherently disrespectful about cremation.

Our Lord and the saints (excluding Saint Jeanne d’Arc, obviously, and the saints burned at the stake) were buried because that was what the societies of which they were a part did. The practice of cremation is not ontollogically pagan, it’s just one of the customs that some pagans practiced. Others had other traditions surrounding their dead.

I have directed that I be cremated. I included this note in my instructions:

"To the Rev. Priest Who Shall Read This,
Dear and Rev. Father:

I am the only Catholic in my family. My family members will need assistance in preparing for my funeral and the attendent rituals. I thank you now for your willingness to help them and I will remember you in my prayers, should I come, by His Grace, into the Presence of the Holy One.

I have elected to be cremated. In compliance with Code of Canon Law promulgated for the Church in 1983 by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, I certify to you that this desire for cremation is in no way a denial of the physical resurection of the body as taught by the Church nor is it a denial or repudiation of any other teaching of the Church. As I desire to look upon the Face of the Lord Jesus, so do I believe that He is able to raise my body from its cremains to stand before Him. I would very much like the urn containing my cremains to be present in the church for my requiem Mass. The urn should then be buried in my family’s plot in Forney, Texas. The ground will need to be consecrated."

I think JKirkLVNV’s thinking nailed it and reflects my thoughts on the matter. I too have been preparing for that final day with pertinent readings on the matter.

The cost of normal burials are an extravagance detrimental to how I want my money to be spent
when I’m gone. In other words I dont want it spent
on me. It also seems from my reading, that having my body iced or embalmed for a Catholic funeral mass, then cremation, saves little money. It seems
more a way of boosting the profit margin on lesser
services (plot,burial) for the mortuary people involved. In my case, the diocesean mortuary/cemetary business. They are not in business to provide cheap paupers funerals.

I am quickly coming to the conclusion of a quick
cremation, urn present at a funeral mass.
Urn goes home with loved one.
Loved one is smart enough to bury my remains
privately and non-commercially in a backyard or forest somewhere. In other words dont
pay the schmuck morturary business big $$ to inter my ashes.

Certainly I dont want to miss any of the applicable sacraments in relation to my death. However, a funeral mass isnt a sacrament, yet I’ll have a funeral mass all the same , and my ashes will be present , all the same.
I’m not missing on ANYTHING!

 

[peary]

ue with cremation you don’t get the miracle of incorruptibility, but that is really minor in the scheme of salvation history.

Is it? Our body - the one we have now - is the one that will be raised incorrupted. To me, that’s not ‘minor’ at all.

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

Believe it or not, the funeral industry has changed practices. The legislation that required that each cost be itemized, and the consumer allowed to accept/reject a specific service, has enabled one to cut costs.

What really is needed is a change to that of wrapping the body in sack cloth, and burying it. No coffin. No embalming. No titivation of the body.

xan

jonathon

I believe there are places that offer “green burials”: the body is sewn up inside a burlap sack and laid to rest in a forest.

For me, I want to be cremated, the cremains placed in a nice, antique-style urn and then quietly interred next to my sainted Irish grandfather. If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d want either a horse-drawn hearse with the coffin visible, much like the Victorians used to do (I’m Gothic, and I feel people have lost sight of the Four Last Things, particularly the first one, which has led to a lot of the abuses we see today) or a New Orleans-style funeral with a Dixieland jazz band playing “When the Saints Go Marching In”.

 

[Jacafamala]

I believe there are places that offer “green burials”: the body is sewn up inside a burlap sack and laid to rest in a forest.
If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d want either a horse-drawn hearse with the coffin visible, much like the Victorians used to do (I’m Gothic, and I feel people have lost sight of the Four Last Things, particularly the first one, which has led to a lot of the abuses we see today) or a New Orleans-style funeral with a Dixieland jazz band playing “When the Saints Go Marching In”.

Yes, I think it’s a lovely tradition. The band has to start off with something so sad and slow, then as the leave the gravesite, the music becomes more uplifting, joyful even. How beautiful; such a tribute to life and death.