Cremation

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“As we celebrate the Lord’s rising from the grave we should also ask ourselves: why are graves increasingly disappearing among American Catholics? Why, indeed, are funerals? I am very concerned about the plague of cremation.”

An Easter Reflection

I’ve attended a couple of funerals in which the deceased was cremated. (Catholic funerals) But in those cases, there was a funeral and an interment. Apparently that is not always the case.
 
I personally want to be cremated when I pass away.

The reasons are numerous and are in no way motivated by a desire to deny the resurrection of the body (which the Church teaches would be an improper justification for cremation).

Firstly, costs. Here in South Africa poor families spend thousands and go into debt to buy an expensive tombstone, to ferry their entire family by bus from across the country to attend a funeral, to buy a cow to slaughter for the funeral (although it will obviously not be applicable in my funeral), and it led me think I don’t want my legacy to my family to be one massive funeral bill. Just give me a dignified requiem mass and then cremate my remains.

Secondly, cemeteries are full. There is hardly any space left for new graves. This is likely in part due to the AIDS epidemic my country recently experienced. My Parish has a memorial wall and I think that would be a fitting and respectful place for my remains to go.

Thirdly the lack of burial spaces, high cost of tombstones and shortage of coffins has led many unscrupulous individuals to profit it from the misery of others illegally, by stealing gravestones, and even digging up graves in order to steal coffins. I don’t want my family to experience such sadness.

Lastly, I have an emotional aversion to burial. I was one of the pallbearers at my father’s burial, and the sight of the coffin being lowered into the ground is disturbing; not something I want my loved ones to go through (again).
 
In my diocese there is a Catholic cemetery which offers a ‘natural burial,’ that is, with no casket; the body is wrapped in a cloth, takes up little space, and the cost is minimal. As for cremation, the remains must still be interred in a cemetery, and there should be a funeral service. In no case should cremated remains be kept at someone’s home.
 
As Johann du Toit has noted, in some countries there is a significant shortage of space for burial plots and, in Hong Kong, there’s even a shortage of space for ashes (burials having been largely abandoned in the 1980’s). So, even before economic constraints come into play sometimes cremation is simply the only viable option.

IMHO the Easter Reflection article linked to by the OP overstates the issue. While obviously not denying the resurrection of the body, I simply don’t agree that cremation undermines our Easter faith. The simple fact is that bodies decompose and, in the case of Blessed John Henry Newman for example, sometimes to the point where nothing remains. Yet, this basic fact doesn’t undermine our belief in the resurrection of the body any more than bodies not being found. The reason is of course that this belief is part of our faith in God who is greater than such limits.
 
The mortal remains of Catholics have been allowed to be cremated for more than half a century .

Most of my loved ones have been cremated .

I find the article quoted in the OP which speaks of the plague of cremation to be offensive .
 
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