Cremation

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Alveus_Lacuna

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My grandmother is Catholic and is being cremated (she died last night). This last week I tried to tell her about the traditional teaching of burial and respect for the body, and she didn’t blow me off. But then she checked with her priest and a “sister” bringing her communion in the hospital and they said that it was “no big deal”.

I also looked up the teach by your church and it stated that the remains should not be divided up, but my mother asked her Catholic priest about divvying-up grandma for themselves and he said that this was fine.

To me as an Orthodox Christian this seems very offensive and a betrayal of the traditional Apostolic faith. So I guess my question is this: Do traditional Catholics still oppose cremation?
 
It certainly isn’t favored in the Church. Christian burial is always favored. The reason that cremation was banned for a long time was because many people did it in for nefarious reasons. The Church has realized that this is not usually the case anymore, so She allows it, as long as it is done genuinely, that is, not for a nefarious reason, and as long as the ashes are reposed properly. The Church favors burial, but realizes that cremation is often necessary for various reasons.

Ashes may NEVER be strewn around. As to whether they may be divided up, I don’t know. That sounds at least fishy.
 
Alveus_Lacuna said:
My grandmother is Catholic and is being cremated (she died last night). This last week I tried to tell her about the traditional teaching of burial and respect for the body, and she didn’t blow me off. But then she checked with her priest and a “sister” bringing her communion in the hospital and they said that it was “no big deal”.

I also looked up the teach by your church and it stated that the remains should not be divided up, but my mother asked her Catholic priest about divvying-up grandma for themselves and he said that this was fine.

To me as an Orthodox Christian this seems very offensive and a betrayal of the traditional Apostolic faith. So I guess my question is this: Do traditional Catholics still oppose cremation?
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I agree with YoungTradCath. Burial is preferred but cremation is permitted. However you may not scatter the ashes or keep them at home in an urn or divided up among the relatives. The urn with the ashes must be properly and respectfully entombed/buried.
 
Catholic Churches in my area have burial areas for ashes which are not buried in containers but poured into the soil and the area covered.
 
Both my grandparents and father in law were cremated. All were catholic. I think it was a money issue for father in law.

My grandma was a good catholic. I don’t think she would have allowed herself to be cremated it it were not allowed. I didn’t like the idea, but I really don’t think grandma would have been ok with it if the church wasn’t.

Sorry for your loss and I hope your grandma has peace.

Monica
 
Alveus_Lacuna said:
To me as an Orthodox Christian this seems very offensive and a betrayal of the traditional Apostolic faith. So I guess my question is this: Do traditional Catholics still oppose cremation?
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Canon 1176 §3. 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.

The cremated remains must be interred, in the ground or a collumbarium. They may not be kept by the family or scattered.
 
I thought that the soul and the resurrected body are reunited? How does this happen if your body is burned?
 
Agape11 said:
I thought that the soul and the resurrected body are reunited? How does this happen if your body is burned?
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God will miraculously give us glorified bodies. One might just as well ask, how does this happen if your body decomposes to dust?
 
My grandfather was cremated in a Catholic ceremony. I think cremation is more practical, actually.
 
I was just concerned because I know the church burned people for heresy because it was believed that the condemned would have no body to be resurrected in the Afterlife.
 
The above is way off. The Church has a canonized list of saints but has NEVER declared anyone definitively to be in hell.

Long ago, the practice of cremation was done specifically in defiance and contempt of the christian idea of resurrection. In that cultural era and climate, cremation was forbidden. But today’s motives for cremation are not the same. Cemetary plots are unbelievably expensive nowadays and there are serious questions about how prudent it is to continue setting aside a 3x8 plot of productive land forever for every person. Today’s motives for cremation are mostly for lower cost and lower land impacts.

Cremated remains placed together in a proper cemetary honors the dead as well as putting the body in the ground and allowing it to rot does. God laughs at the idea that any of these things are obstacles to bodily resurrection! He built the universe atom by atom. You really think he’d get stumped by a simple re-assembly problem???
 
Cost is very much a factor in today’s economy. Funerals are extremely expensive. The cost of embalming, the casket, charge per day to use the funeral home, service at the cemetery, the hearse, etc. It is only $75 to open the grave for a small box of cremains, but well over $500 to open the grave to entomb a casket. One may still have a funeral mass and then send the body for cremation afterwards, or else cremate immediately, and then have a memorial mass afterwards for those who care to attend.
 
1ke said:
Canon 1176 §3. 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.

The cremated remains must be interred, in the ground or a collumbarium. They may not be kept by the family or scattered.
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I read something somewhere just yesterday that an Urn could be kept temporarily in the home until inturnment. I’ve lost where I read that. My family is discussing this for my Father whom we lost a couple of days ago. They would like to know what the word “temporary” refers to. Our plan is to build a small collumbarium on our property and have it blessed. Now, are home has been blessed from so many years ago. Would the land our home exists on be included in that blessing I wonder?
 
God created us “from the dust of the earth” , so I sure god won’t have a problem gathering ashes. The church teaches that spirt and body are two separate things, the body is of the earth and will return to earth.
 
Sirach2 said:
One may still have a funeral mass and then send the body for cremation afterwards, or else cremate immediately, and then have a memorial mass afterwards for those who care to attend.
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Oh, this has reminded me of something. Recently at my church, a funeral mass was performed where a woman’s ashes were brought into the church and placed in the front of the church. Was it licit to have a funeral mass with the ashes of the deceased and not the body?
 
plefe said:
I read something somewhere just yesterday that an Urn could be kept temporarily in the home until inturnment. I’ve lost where I read that. My family is discussing this for my Father whom we lost a couple of days ago. They would like to know what the word “temporary” refers to. Our plan is to build a small collumbarium on our property and have it blessed. Now, are home has been blessed from so many years ago. Would the land our home exists on be included in that blessing I wonder?
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I do not know of anything that states the cremated remains may be kept “temporarily”. I cannot envision anything in Church documentation in which “temporarily” would mean more than a few days.

I do not believe the length of time to build and have a collumbarium consecrated would be defined as “temporary”. You should consult your priest, as their may be an appropriate place the remains can be interred or held and then retrieved.
 
Tell the truth I heartily dislike the funeral industry and it’s euphamisms. I dislike how undertakers urge survivors to spend every last penny to put in a hole in the ground, they are like vultures chasing the almighty dollar.

It’s a coffin, not a “casket”, a grave not a “space”. A body is embalmed, not “prepared”. And the results of all this embalming might last a week if lucky.

When I die not “pass away”, I don’t want to be embalmed, I don’t want to be made up, put in a coffin for people to parade by and say “how good he looks”. How good can a corpse look?

Following the Requiem I will be cremated in a cardboard box. And my ashes not “CREMAINS” will be put in a church columbarium. I have already financed this and insurance will go to my loved ones (fancy that) and not the undertakers.
 
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