Mum wants to be cremated when she dies - what to do?

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Christus_Rex

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Hi everyone! I have a bit of a dilemma :confused:.

My mum wants to be cremated and her ashes scattered in the hills of her beloved Wales when she dies.

However, I get the impression that she is not allowed to do this from what I have read on these forums!!

I want to do what my mum wants when she dies and I want to know whether or not she can do this. Would she still be able to have a Funeral Mass?

Michael 😦

P.S. She isnt dying now, but has said what she wants.
 
It is permitted to cremate someone. However, you may not scatter the ashes. The ashes must be disposed of in a way that is fully respectful of the body. For example, you might bury the ashes in the hills of Wales, or place them in an appropriate niche in a cemetary.

Peace,
Linda
 
I thought that the ashes had to be intered at a Catholic cemetary.
 
Both of my parents want to be cremeated and their ashes scattered in the ocean. When I told them the Catholic Church will not allow this to happen they said “They don’t have any say in it do they?”
 
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Petertherock:
Both of my parents want to be cremeated and their ashes scattered in the ocean. When I told them the Catholic Church will not allow this to happen they said “They don’t have any say in it do they?”
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If your parents are not Catholic then they do not have to follow the rules. If they are Catholic then Yes the Church has a say in it. The remains can be burried at sea but cannot be sacttered.
 
Interesting info… thanks guys.

My grandfather died last year and was cremated. He was not Catholic, but I have often wondered if his eternal life was being jepordized by his wish to be cremated. Now I know it probably wasn’t, because he wanted to be cremated because he wanted to be placed in a mausolem (and he was, in a beautiful glass niche).

It brings me great comfort.
 
Cremation, besides being the preferred way Roman pagans disposed of bodies, was once used by opponents of Christianity as a denial of the resurrection. The person ordering the cremation was declaring it was possible to destroy a body so completely that God could not resurrect it. Scattering the ashes was the final insult against God. Therefore, for many centuries, Catholics were forbidden cremation because it was associated by so many with rejection of God.

In modern times that association has been nearly forgotten. Catholics are now permitted to cremate bodies, so long as the ashes are treated in the same respectful manner as an un-cremated body, and the choice for cremation is not made as a rejection of God’s divine power.

Interesting tidbit: when ancient Roman burial ground under the Basilica of St. Peter was excavated about 60 years ago, the markings on the tombs clearly distinguished between pagans and Christians. All the pagan graves were cremations, and the Christian graves were burials.
 
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