As I have been praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory this November, I think of all the funeral Masses for family, friends, and parishioners that I have offered through the years as a priest. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the promises Our Lord gives to the faithful departed gives me great hope and a deep trust that those who have gone before us are still very close. 

            Yet at the same time, I think about an increasingly distressing problem at our funerals: The practice of cremation. In 1997, the Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome granted an indult for the United States to allow the diocesan bishop to permit the presence of cremains (cremated remains of the body) at a funeral Mass. Ever since then, this practice has become more commonplace, often because it is simply less expensive. While there is nothing doctrinally that should forbid the use of cremains and many families choose cremation with good intentions, numerous unforeseen problems have arisen, primarily having to do with a failure to reverently bury the cremains.

            Like most parish priests, I have found families that never bury the cremains in sacred ground, but leave the ashes on a mantle, or divided up among family members, placed in lockets around their necks, or sprinkled over landscapes. On more than one occasion, I have had the sacred remains delivered by UPS drivers to the front door of the rectory. I have had to sign for the inconspicuous brown box as the driver rushes off to his next delivery or even simply found it on the front step when no one was home.  

            As time goes on, examples of more “creative ways” of dispensing with the ashes continue to grow, especially among secular personalities. Journalist Hunter S. Thompson had his ashes fired into the air with fireworks. Television producer Gene Roddenberry had his remains sent into outer space. Although these practices make headlines, it creates an overall degradation of our understanding of how sacred our bodies truly are, as if the body is just a mere shell that can be cast off. 

The Body is Sacred

            The Church has long held that the body is sacred and that once someone is baptized, the Christian becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The Christian’s body does not belong to us but to God, and even after the soul leaves the body, it should be treated with great respect. St. Augustine writes that one should not neglect the body of our loved ones because it is precious: “For if a father’s clothing and ring or anything of the kind is dear to his children because of their affection for their parents, their bodies are not to be disregarded, which were closer and more one with them than any clothing.”⁽¹⁾St. Augustine, On Duties toward the Dead quoted in Roman Breviary, November 2, Matins. (You can find more about what Catholic theology teaches regarding the importance of the body on this blog here.)

            When the Church permitted cremation, the directive noted that the Catholic Church still prefers the presence of a body at the funeral rather than cremains. The Order of Christian Funerals teaches: “Although cremation is now permitted by the Church, it does not enjoy the same value as the 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 those rites.”⁽²⁾Order of Christian Funerals, 413. As the Apostles Creed says, “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” The body will also rise. Having the body present at the funeral better expresses this dogmatic truth. 

            The Church teaches that cremation should only be used as an exception: “When extraordinary circumstances make the cremation of the body the only feasible choice.”⁽³⁾Ibid., 415. Therefore Mother Church asks that catechesis regularly be given about the dignity of the body and why the Church prefers the presence of the body at the funeral rites rather than cremation.⁽⁴⁾Cf. Ibid., 414.

Correcting the Abuses

            As cremation grew to become an ordinary practice among Catholics and abuses from the 1997 indult became more evident, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2016 issued a follow up document entitled, Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo, to address these concerns.  

             The document pointed out that the reverent practice of burying the dead is an ancient part of our tradition: “Tobias, the just, was praised for the merits he acquired in the sight of God for having buried the dead, and the Church considers the burial of dead one of the corporal works of mercy.”⁽⁵⁾Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo, 3. Burying the dead properly makes us an instrument of God’s mercy.

            Because the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and the faithful departed are dependent on us to ensure that their remains are treated with respect, we should make sure the cremains are buried in blessed ground: “Following the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places.”⁽⁶⁾Ibid.

            In an era dominated by individuality and personal rights, the document makes a beautiful point about the Mystical Body of Christ, on how death is not an individual matter, but involves the entire Christian community, both the living and dead. “The burial of the faithful departed in cemeteries or other sacred places encourages family members and the whole Christian community to pray for and remember the dead, while at the same time fostering the veneration of martyrs and saints. Through the practice of burying the dead in cemeteries, in churches or their environs, Christian tradition has upheld the relationship between the living and the dead and has opposed any tendency to minimize, or relegate to the purely private sphere, the event of death and the meaning it has for Christians.”⁽⁷⁾Ibid.

            Anyone who regularly visits a loved one at the cemetery will immediately recognize this truth. With each visit, one becomes familiar with the other graves surrounding his family and a quiet bond grows with the others who are resting in the cemetery. The desire to pray for them and to be receptive to their prayers for us only increases. 

            The 2016 document even goes so far as to say that a priest can deny the family a Catholic funeral if it becomes evident the family does not plan to bury the cremains properly: “When the deceased notoriously has requested cremation and the scattering of their ashes for reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied to that person according to the norms of the law”⁽⁸⁾Ibid., 8.

            The Catholic Church again finds itself struggling with the reality that once it permits the exception, the exception becomes the rule. Now that the Church has permitted cremation, the practice has not only become a norm, but is overrun with many unforeseen abuses. Hence, when planning a funeral, families should strive to maintain the ancient practice of having the body present at the funeral rites rather than cremains. The presence of the body better expresses our belief in the resurrection of the body, it prevents abuses, and as the Church teaches, it, “shows a greater esteem for the deceased.”⁽⁹⁾“The Church continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased”, Ibid., 4.