Is creamation legal?

[KowboyM]

I heard that it is leagal if ashes receive a funeral in Church and that they are buried in hallowed ground? They cannot be sent to a relative?

 

[mayra_hart]

i hope that is not truth, i want my ashes to be spread into the sea.

 

[jeffreedy789]

i have heard that cremation is inconsistent with the catholic teachings on the resurrection - that we will be bodily resurrected - and so discouraged. i don’t know for certain.

 

[DavidFilmer]

The Bishops say:

While cremated remains my be buried in a grave, entombed in a mausoleum or columbarium or even buried at sea, “the practice of scattering cremated remains on the sea, from the air, or on the ground, or keeping cremated remains in the home of a relative or friend of the deceased are not the reverent disposition that the Church requires.” (OCF 416) The cremated remains of the body may be properly buried at sea in the urn, coffin or other container in which they have been carried to the place of committal.

The parts about “keeping cremated remains in the home of a relative” and about proper burial at sea seem to answer the questions raised in the first two posts.

jeffreedy789 is also correct. Cremation is permitted “when extraordinary circumstances make the cremation of a body the only feasible choice” per the Bishops’ statement (same URL):

Thus, while “cremation is now permitted, it does not enjoy the same value as burial of the body…The Church clearly prefers and urges that the body of the deceased be present for the funeral rites, since the presence of the human body better expresses the values which the Church affirms in its rites.” (OCF 413) However, “when extraordinary circumstances make the cremation of a body the only feasible choice, pastoral sensitivity must be exercised by all who minister to the family of the deceased.” (OCF 414)