Roses from Graves being Re-Sold (after funeral)

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CatholicSpirit

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I once met a guy selling flowers late at night near a cemetery. If those flowers were taken from a grave, is that an evil act I committed? I joked that maybe that’s where they came from, and bought it anyway for my first love.
 
If he took them from a grave without permission, that would be steeling on his part, not yours.

Owning flowers is not immoral, so unless you know with certainty that they were stolen, buying them is not a sin.

If he was authorized by the cemetery to collect and resell the flowers, that would also not be sinful (merely distasteful).
 
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He may have had permission.
Some cemetaries are strict about keeping the graves uncluttered.
 
But the flowers don’t belong to the cemeteries! They belong to the family of the deceased. All resting places are being paid regularly by living family members. The staff can clean the graves after the flowers have withered. They don’t have the right to take them away as they please.
 
Actually, it depends on the contract you have wth the cemetery.
Different cemeteries have different rules.
 
It was not known, but could have been assumed as taken from a local cemetery. The person seemed deeply poor and possibly homeless. I think with wwjd sometimes and with his corn field parable, I would not refuse a chance to give him money if he was ignorant and trying to do something good not knowing the difference.
 
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First, why is this in Evangelization? Has nothing to do with evangelization.

Second, flowers in cemeteries are often thrown away after about 2 days. I would never take flowers from a grave, but in one case the trash can at the cemetery was overflowing with them as the groundskeeper had obviously just been through and picked them all up and pitched them and it was the Monday or Tuesday after a holiday so there had been a lot of bouquets over the weekend. They were still fresh and in some cases still in the cellophane wrap from the store. I helped myself to a few from the trash can.

I almost never leave flowers at a cemetery just because of that reason - they throw them out as fast as possible. I might leave one loose rose on the grave which hopefully will just be mulched by the mower when it comes through.
 
I never knew they were thrown away, I always thought they were left to disintegrate but I guess that wouldn’t make sense if it had the cellophane.
 
Most cemeteries have a policy that states how quick they remove decorations from the graves. Typically it’s within a week, or if it’s Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day etc they may specify a certain date.
 
They do have policies, and they are usually posted somewhere on the cemetery grounds. In the cemetary here my mom is buried I don’t think the grounds keeper is militant about the rules for flowers as long as they don’t interfere with mowing. It always looks tidy
 
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