Believers who choose to have their ashes scattered after being cremated are entitled to a Christian funeral, the Vatican said yesterday.
The ruling follows the refusal of a parish priest in the Italian Alps to hold a funeral for a local man who had asked to have his remains spread in the mountains. Father Carmelo Pellicone, of the parish of St Etienne in Aosta, told the man’s widow that a religious funeral was impossible because it was against the dogma of the resurrection of the body.
He said that scattering ashes in the countryside or at sea was a “pantheistic communion with nature in death, which is not part of our religion” ”“ a belief held by many priests. Bishop Luciano Pacomio, head of doctrine at the Italian Bishops Conference, said, however, that this reflected an out-of-date mentality.
Creeping liberalism, it burns me up.
And don’t they know this contributes to Global Warming?
When I was younger, I used to want my ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean (I loved going there as a child when I lived in WA). Since I’ve grown up a bit, I have decided I still want to be cremated, but buried in a columbarium instead. Unless, of course, hubby goes to Nashotah as he feels called to do, then I wanna be buried up there.
Can’t make up my mind….
I am relieved. My wife (Methodist) wants to be scattered at sea, and now I am off the horns of either disobedience or dishonoring.
This flies in the face of the immemorial discipline of The Church. This persistent tendency on the part of the Latin Church to relax or simply abandon church disciplines is disheartening and will not advance the cause of restoration of communion.
Ad Orientem,
Seems to me that this issue might be included under ‘small t’ tradition.
I can’t find any confirmation on the internet that the Vatican has ruled or said anything recently about the scatterring of ashes. It looks as if some Italian bishops and liturgists have been quoted, but nothing from a Vatican spokesperson. I wonder if the writer thinks that Italian bishops are Vatican spokesmen.
I find comfort in visiting the graves of loved ones, and I suspect a columbarium would do as well, especially if it were in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in a Church. I don’t know if visiting the meadow or beach where we scattered someone would do as well. It might, I guess.
I also find comfort knowing that when it’s time, my remains will rest among generations of my family – parents, grandparents, great-grandparents (even one great-great), aunts, uncles, cousins… There is something that points to eternity – that which has gone before and that which has come after.
But maybe I’m the one being pantheistic here.
WM, it’s not pantheism, it’s called the Communion of the Saints and your love and respect for it and them. You’re spot on.
Kendall’s post a bit back on this were the best thoughts I’ve read on the subject. The theological symbolism of cremation is way off the mark, but are you sinful or damned for partaking of it? The RC seems to be saying no. Good for them, but good for them for strongly encouraging the tradition, and I hope for explaining the reasons for it.
Here’s the thing as far as I’m concerned. Bodies decay over time anyway. Depending on circumstances, there may not be any remains left after some years, at least after a few decades. And then what of people who had no choice in not having a body for burial. I knew a lady whose husband was lost at sea. Human remains decompose very rapidly in the ocean. So does that mean this fellow has no hope of a resurrection because his physical body does not exist anymore? What of people who die in fires and explosions. What of all the poor souls from 9/11 whose bodies will never be recovered because they are no more?
The point is, I don’t think that something like scattering ashes is something our God can’t work with. I’m quite sure He is capable of gathering up whatever it takes to resurrect a body. After all, He created DNA and molecules and I am quite convinced that fires or explosions or being lost at sea will not be a barrier for God. And I’m quite sure He can resurrect a body from ashes as well, whether together in an urn, or scattered to the four corners of the earth.
It’s one thing to do it for pagan or anti-Christian reasons, but I don’t see that cremation or scattering ashes in and of itself is a sin.
As newadvent.org tells us their is nothing about cremation that is contrary to Church dogma.
Here is what confuses me. I always thought just as the priest thought in this case ie that Church teaching forbade cremation, always had and always would.
Then when I joined my very orthodox A-C parish, my priest corrected me and said that was not the case.
We have two columbariums in the sanctuary.
I have several questions which someone knowledgeable could maybe answer.
1) Who is historically correct here? It seems that the Orthodox strictly forbid it. The Roman Church has dropped its one time opposition and for the Anglicans, according to our parish priest at least, its never been an issue either way as long as the proper burial rites are observed. (Assuming of course there are no other outstanding issues. Also he didnt mention scattering.)
2) Is my priest correct that the Anglican tradition has never been opposed to cremation?
3) Has our tradition ever been or is it opposed now to scattering? and why?
For myself, I want to be cremated and then be put on the Epistle side columbarium so I can be where I so love to be until the Last Day
I don’t have strong feelings about cremation either way, but there are some things to consider. Bodies do decay, and that natural process seems to me a good thing in it’s own way. A question to ask is whether cremation short-circuits a good process. Not saying it does; it’s just a question.
Cistercian monastics are, traditionally, buried directly into the ground, wrapped in their voluminous cowls. One of their cemeteries filled up, so they began to re-use graves, gathering the fragments of remain, putting them into a small box, and then letting the newly decreased rest his head on his brother’s bones. The imagery of that has stayed with me.
I’ve also read that on Mt. Athos, the Orthodox monks are buried, in their vestments, in a grave until the flesh has decayed, then the bones are thrown into a common bone-house. That has it’s own symbolism with it’s own comfort.
Actually, whether cremated or not, I wish we were buried under the floors of our churches as used to be custom. Another wonderful connection.
Sorry if this is too far afield.
If God can create the universe from nothing with a big bang (latest theory), then he ought to be able to recreate a person from ashes. That should be a snap.
I read it all and no where does it say anything about the vatican approving the scatterring of ashes. It says:
“Believers who choose to have their ashes scattered after being cremated are entitled to a Christian funeral, the Vatican said yesterday. ”
Believers are entitled to a Christian funeral is what the Vatican said. Nothing has changed. The scatterring of ashes is still against Church teaching, but the sin of disobediance likely lies with the ones scatterring and not with the one being scatterred. Richard Owen in Rome has added his own interpretation to the Vatican announcement.
God bless…
The Orthodox prohibition of cremation is not based on the inability to resurrect the body at the General Judgment. But rather it is based on the sacrilege done to the Temple of the Holy Spirit by an essentially pagan practice. The prohibition is not absolute. The Church permits cremation out of economy in cases where there is an urgent reason or when there is no choice (a few countries mandate cremation).
New Troll opines that this is small ‘t’ tradition, and he is correct. However my point in my earlier post was not that Rome was violating some sort of dogma, but rather that this was merely the latest example of her tendency to constantly be lowering the bar in terms of church discipline. Note the gradual relaxation of the fasting discipline the Latin Church over the centuries to the point where for all intent and purposes there really is none now. Communion is now given in the hand(!), laymen are permitted to disseminate the sacred species, women now serve on the altar and so on. The list could go on for quite a ways. All of this is looked on with concern in the East. What then is the reason for all of this? Has it really had the effect of increasing piety and respect for the sacred? Have these relaxations or outright abandonment of traditional disciplines aided souls?
What is the justification for this mass rejection of tradition (small ‘t’) that so outweighs the reasons for its inception?
Having seen two very interesting specials on “Underground cities” where bones have been piled seemingly at random, with no care for which bones go together (in some areas, skulls are stacked with skulls, femurs with femurs, etc.), plus how relics of Saints are scattered through out the world (I read recently how the skull of St. Brigid of Ireland was taken to Portugal!), I don’t see how cremation can be that big of a deal. Surely at the last trump and the final resurrection, God will know how to put the pieces back together so that we all stand before Him whole.
Peace (not piece)!
Jim Elliott <><