Nothing at all is bothering me…it was a question. And I know for a fact some bishops wear relics in lockets on necklaces.She does not allow you to wear the ashes for the same reason she does not allow you to cut off grandma’s finger and wear it as a necklace - to do show would show disrespect for the body. It is why She requires cremains to be buried or interred in consecrated ground, the same as a body would be.
Relics of Saints are placed in altars (ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur80.htmt) and venerated for the benefit of the faithful. They are treated with the utmost care and respect and are not worn as jewelery.
In short, cremains and relics are apples and oranges with different rules governing each.
What is really bothering you?
never in over 60 years as a CAtholic have I heard of this practice. Do you have some documentation?
It was done more in the past than now. Father Z posted something about this topic in this post
Okay, they don’t allow you to wear grandma’s finger for a necklace, but they let you take fragments of saints bones and pass them off all over the world?
It is never acceptable to place relics in necklaces. Those you see on TV are fakes.
Rubbing grandmas remains on one’s body? I never said that.
Because in the case of the saint, the “body” is scattered to holy places ie, churches, for the sake of faithful veneration. This is not the same as 20 relatives keeping bits of Granny’s ashes at their respective homes (not holy) for purely sentimental purposes.
Okay, so the scattering of the body is not what makes it wrong.
The saints have been revealed by God to be in heaven. We do not know the fate of those not revealed to us and we cannot make guesses on it.
Okay, so its okay to scatter the body parts of those who have been revealed by God to be in Heaven.
this is not “morally unacceptable” per se, except insofar that it is immoral for a Catholic to deliberately disobey a disciplinary rule of the Church. Such rules are changeable, e.g. until last century the Church explicitly forbade cremation except where it was essential for health reasons (plague etc.) The Church’s rules now allow cremation of Catholics as long as the remains are the buried, so that there is no suggestion of denial of the resurrection. The Church does not teach that it is immoral for non-Catholics to do this. Nor is it “immoral” in itself for Catholics, just as it is not “immoral” for a Catholic or anyone to eat meat on Fridays in Lent, just that it is a disciplinary rule which Catholics are bound to obey (within reason).
Venerating the remains of a person who has not been declared infallibly to be in Heaven, is superstition, and the Church prohibits it. In fact the cause for canonisation of a person can be halted if there is evidence of “undue cult” e.g. people venerating the person as if he were already canonised.
Scattering the body cremains is not allowed.
I know that. But the scattering of bones and other parts of the body is…only if your a saint though.