Maybe off the OP a bit but I am the only Catholic in my immediate family, I’m praying to change that situation but no success yet
I have chosen to be cremated from a financial standpoint. Caskets, burial vaults, and plots along with embalming can be expensive. I don’t have a lot of money, but I have enough. I just don’t want to burden my children with the expense of all that. There is a monastery near my town and I can purchase a spot for my cremains to be interred. My understanding is the recent directive states burial is the preferred option, but cremation is allowed under certain circumstances. Do you know what those circumstances are?
The easiest way to answer your question and address your concerns is to quote the instruction directly; what you raise is addressed in paragraphs 4 and 5.
I would note that since you have chosen cremation, then cremation would not be occurring against your wish, which is one criteria expressed in paragraph 4…that a person ought not be cremated when their wish was the contrary
*4. In circumstances when cremation is chosen because of sanitary, economic or social considerations, this choice must never violate the explicitly-stated or the reasonably inferable wishes of the deceased faithful. The Church raises no doctrinal objections to this practice, since cremation of the deceased’s body does not affect his or her soul, nor does it prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life. Thus cremation, in and of itself, objectively negates neither the Christian doctrine of the soul’s immortality nor that of the resurrection of the body.
The Church continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased. Nevertheless, cremation is not prohibited, “unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine”.
In the absence of motives contrary to Christian doctrine, the Church, after the celebration of the funeral rite, accompanies the choice of cremation, providing the relevant liturgical and pastoral directives, and taking particular care to avoid every form of scandal or the appearance of religious indifferentism.
- When, for legitimate motives, cremation of the body has been chosen, the ashes of the faithful must be laid to rest in a sacred place, that is, in a cemetery or, in certain cases, in a church or an area, which has been set aside for this purpose, and so dedicated by the competent ecclesial authority.
From the earliest times, Christians have desired that the faithful departed become the objects of the Christian community’s prayers and remembrance. Their tombs have become places of prayer, remembrance and reflection. The faithful departed remain part of the Church who believes “in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church."
The reservation of the ashes of the departed in a sacred place ensures that they are not excluded from the prayers and remembrance of their family or the Christian community. It prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten, or their remains from being shown a lack of respect, which eventuality is possible, most especially once the immediately subsequent generation has too passed away. Also it prevents any unfitting or superstitious practices.*
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20160815_ad-resurgendum-cum-christo_en.html
Thus, your decision would meet the criteria in terms of choosing cremation and in terms of the disposition of your remains, by confiding them to the monastery for interment.
