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Was cremation always allowed? It took 20th century advances in warfare, with wonderful new ways to blow men up while leaving no findable remains, to force the issue  Not all that different than the Maccabeen wars leading to contemplation of an afterlife . . .
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And some clergy think I should be the one to be the Church's "enforcer." Once advising a family about what the Church wants done, I ask them what they want done and do it. Otherwise I risk the loss of my license to practice.
Oh, I've had all the requests. One man wanted to have me send his mother's cremains away so she could be a pinkie ring. Or the people who wanted to send the cremains away to a company that mixes them with pottery grade clay and sends them back as either a set of dishes or a set of coffee mugs. Or the people who make lockets so you can carry them with you at all times. Or the man who made an end table for his den so he could have his parents continue to watch football with him--glass fronted to protect the urns.
I think beyond all this is the fact that respect for others--almost lost in the culture--translates into this sort of caring for the dead. I don't know, but the differences in attitude also seem to me to reflect the fact that most people have very little contact with any formal religious group and very little idea about what happens after death. The idea that the body is some worthless, sinful "shell" seems to have become secularized to the extent that it is just seomthing to dsipose of.
Bob dear Bob: Thanks for your input. My impression is that pre-Cremation in the Catholic Communion, there weren't any of these weird requests. Can't help thinking it all has to do with the reduction of the human body into ashes and crushed bones ("cremains"). In pre-cremation days, did you ever hear of requests to do disrespectful things to the body (divisions, separate burials, and some of the totally wacko things you cited). My guess is that when the remains still looked like the person, one tended to treat it as a person and not as a....I talisman or something. re your comment on the secularization of culture being responsible, very interest. My complain isn't re non-christians cremating and doing odd things with the ashes/bones, but Catholics who want to do weird things. What can be done? Seems like the horse has escaped the barn and little can now be done. As to your question of being an enforcer, while I understand your situation, I also understand the clergy's being stuck, especially when the funeral directors have already done what they have done and presented the priest with a fait accompli. I wonder what can be done. It all comes back to cremations, no? grrrrr..... What can be done? Herb
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Was cremation always allowed? Not only it wasn't allowed, it was explicitly condemned, for instance by the decree of the Holly Office from May 19th, 1889. It was stated that the attempt to introduce cremation to Christian culture has pagan and Freemasonic origins. Canon 1203 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law condemned cremation and ordered bodies to be buried. Canon 1240 prohibited Catholic funeral from those who wanted their bodies to be cremated. On July 5th, 1963 Holy Office issued a decree limiting the sanction of canon 1240 to those who had non-Catholic intentions. The 1983 Code of Canon Law allowed cremation, unless it was decided from reasons "against Christian teaching" (Can 1176.3). Of course the Church had no objections to creamtion in case of grave necessity (war, epidemic) even before 1963.
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Cremation — Cremation is absolutely forbidden by the Church as being blasphemous to the body of man which is "the temple of the Holy Spirit". Cremation is contrary to the faith and tradition of our Church and is forbidden to Orthodox Christians. A Church funeral is denied a person who has been or will be cremated. [ saintdemetrios.com] Although historically both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches forbade cremation (except when necessitated by epidemics, etc) chiefly because it was perceived as a denial of the resurrection of the body and the afterlife, some discussions here in the past indicate that the Orthodox Church has also taken different stances from time to time - or at least individual hierarchs and jurisdictions have. See, for instance, the post by Father Ambrose in this thread. Many years, Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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Oh, I've had all the requests. One man wanted to have me send his mother's cremains away so she could be a pinkie ring. Or the people who wanted to send the cremains away to a company that mixes them with pottery grade clay and sends them back as either a set of dishes or a set of coffee mugs. Or the people who make lockets so you can carry them with you at all times. Or the man who made an end table for his den so he could have his parents continue to watch football with him--glass fronted to protect the urns. How bizarre, macabre, wierd and just plain sick. It brings to my mind the refrain we hear over and over in supplication services: "ill I am in body, ill I am, also in my soul". Our society is suffering a crisis of faith and belief...and as Bob points out, these wierd requests are proof of it.
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My complain isn't re non-christians cremating and doing odd things with the ashes/bones, but Catholics who want to do weird things. Herb: Catholics live in the culture, too, and with poor catechesis many are CINO--Catholcis in name only. In many home I enter, there is not enough evidence of Catholics living there to convict a person of being Catholic, if it were a crime. Bob
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As to your question of being an enforcer, while I understand your situation, I also understand the clergy's being stuck, especially when the funeral directors have already done what they have done and presented the priest with a fait accompli. I wonder what can be done. It all comes back to cremations, no? grrrrr..... Herb: First of all, the time to educate about the Church's teaching in this area is NOT when someone is dead. By that time, people have already formed their opinions and made up their midns. Don't blame the funeral director. His hands are tied by licensing agencies to do what he is told as long as it is legal and ethical. Bob
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I remember one case some years back of a person dying of something the authorities still have not put a name on. The body was dissolving itself almost before our eyes. It was embalmed twice to no avail, had a horrible odor about it, and was labeled so contagious that we all had to have blood work done and follow-ups some time later to ensure we did not have infection. Made for some scary times. In such a case, cremation is not really a bad thing, but a part of protecting public health.
Bob
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Yes, that is where I believe in the old Latin Canon law, cremation was allowed as an exception to the rule. There was a good reason for it. Not just because!
ps: it's not just CINOs that make weird requests, but church going ones too. The distinction between What the Church prefers/recommends and what the Church does not forbid is totally lost on a lot of people.
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Dear Alice, I couldn't agree with you more, that our society is facing a crisis of belief. (shoot, from time to time I experience personal crisis of belief!!)However, not all the unusual practices mentioned in other posts are necessarily evidence of it - they may be evidence of evolution of legitimate ways in which to express correct faith. For example, the tiny lockets containing a fragment of cremated bone: that's rather reminiscent of posessing/venerating relics, isn't it? And the division of cremains may make it possible for relatives/friends to establish more than just one final resting place of the deceased; and such an arrangement could enable mourners to visit, pray and reflect at one of those resting places more frequently and easily than if they had to travel long distances to visit just one such location.
I hasten to add I am astonished by and unfavorable toward practices such as shooting the cremains into outer space in a rocket, or having them turned into jewelry, or pottery, or kept at home or scattered...I'd advocate reverent burial in blessed ground or inurnment in a blessed columbarium or mausoleum crypt.
Last edited by sielos ilgesys; 10/27/10 11:07 PM.
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Dear Alice, I couldn't agree with you more, that our society is facing a crisis of belief. (shoot, from time to time I experience personal crisis of belief!!)However, not all the unusual practices mentioned in other posts are necessarily evidence of it - they may be evidence of evolution of legitimate ways in which to express correct faith. For example, the tiny lockets containing a fragment of cremated bone: that's rather reminiscent of posessing/venerating relics, isn't it? And the division of cremains may make it possible for relatives/friends to establish more than just one final resting place of the deceased; and such an arrangement could enable mourners to visit, pray and reflect at one of those resting places more frequently and easily than if they had to travel long distances to visit just one such location. Interesting points, sielos. I hasten to add I am astonished by and unfavorable toward practices such as shooting the cremains into outer space in a rocket, or having them turned into jewelry, or pottery, or kept at home or scattered...I'd advocate reverent burial in blessed ground or inurnment in a blessed columbarium or mausoleum crypt. Not being a fan of cremation, I generally agree with you. However, I have to admit to considering it rather apropos when Gene Roddenberry's cremains were shot into space, given the thoughtful and incredible job that he did in portraying the myriad challenges that might face mankind in a future world where it might become necessary to interact with sentient beings from places we can only imagine. It seemed to me to be not particularly different than the commitment of deceased seafarers to the watery depths on which they had sailed. Many years, Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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The Church would have a much stronger case if, throughout its history, it had had greater respect for the integrity of the remains of the deceased. But with the cult of the saints, not only were bones disarticulated and dispersed to many places, a thriving trade in such parts was practiced in both the East and the West.
In addition, in the Western Church, at least, it was common practice to "render" the body of important persons who died far from their home (e.g., on campaign or pilgrimage). This involved boiling down all the soft tissue and then removing the bones from the resulting stew. The bones could then be placed in an ossuary and conveniently transported to the deceased final resting place. Sources aren't clear on what happened to the man soup.
If the Church is to make a strong case against cremation, it must do so not on soteriological grounds (burial is necessary so the body will be intact at the resurrection) but on spiritual and mystagogical grounds (the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, deserving of being treated with dignity, and the funeral rite is intended to stress the psychosomatic wholeness of the human person and the temporary nature of the death of the body).
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The bones could then be placed in an ossuary and conveniently transported to the deceased final resting place. This is the current practice in Greece. After three years, in most cemeteries, the deceased is dug up (they do not embalm there, and the funerals are held the next day) and his bones are placed in an ossuary. In two cases which were close to me, my paternal aunt, and my father in law, (both in Athens), the body was dug up and not decomposed. They are then buried for two more years until which time it will be done again. Every cemetery has an on premise priest. At this unearthing, a priest reads a trisagion prayer for the soul. Also, at any time one visits any cemetery where one's loved ones are buried, one can ask the priest to come say a short memorial prayer service at their grave or ossuary for their souls. What more profound reason for a visit to a grave can there be than that?
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burial is necessary so the body will be intact at the resurrection Stuart: The body that is interred will be a skeleton in a pool of semi-gelatinous material within about 12 years of burial. Depending on the acidity fo the soil, the skeleton may also be dissolved, though in a longer period. I'd have to say that, although cremation is not for me, I believe in a God Who can put things back together with a single act of His Will. So Resurrection will come about whether the remains in the grave are pulverized or not. There is also an economic factor tht is becoming increasingly important. In the hinterlands where I practice, earth burial, wherein the cemetery always requires a caveproof container for the casket--for maintenance purposes--and where opening and closing fees are becoming increasingly out of reach for many, is becoming something more people take a long look at. When cremation after a funeral service can save as much as $2500.00 even when the cremains are interred int he family plot, people take a look at it. BOB
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This is the current practice in Greece. After three years, in most cemeteries, the deceased is dug up (they do not embalm there, and the funerals are held the next day) and his bones are placed in an ossuary. This is a continuation of Jewish burial customs from the first century: the body was laid out on a ledge in a tomb, where it decomposed. After several years, the tomb would be opened, and the bones placed in a limestone ossuary (many of which have been discovered over the years); it would not be uncommon for a single ossuary to contain the bones of several members of a single family. This is what was intended for the body of Jesus: He was wrapped in a linen shroud, and the women who came on the morning of the Third Day were going to anoint his body not to preserve it, but only to help reduce the odor of corruption that emanated from such tombs. The principal difference between the current Greek practice and the ancient Jewish one is the Greeks practice inhumation--burying the body in the ground, as opposed to placing it in a rock-hewn cave.
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