Holy Gardens Greenhills, Calamba City | May 22, 2013
Here is an interesting note of Cynthia Cartago, head of Holy Gardens Greenhills on Cremation. We have been planning for this Calamba for the last 3 years. We planned to sell the ash crypts in Greenhills to finance the purchase of cremation. We had anemic sales though on ash crypts:
The
Church No Longer Forbids the Practice, but Doesn't Allow The Scattering of
Cremated Remains
By
Lou Jacquet
To judge by the box-office receipts,
millions of Americans saw the final scene in the movie "The Bridges of
Madison County." In it a son and daughter honor their mother's last
request by scattering her ashes from a scenic Iowa bridge.
It's high drama, a powerful moment.
Whatever else it might be, however, it would clearly not be a proper burial if
the woman were Catholic.
But the mere fact the woman was
cremated is not the issue. Today many Catholics, in speaking with their parish
priest about funeral arrangements for themselves or for a loved one, are
surprised to learn the Church no longer forbids cremation. What those cinematic
heirs did wrong was to ignore the Church's stipulation that cremated remains
(called "cremains") must receive a proper burial in consecrated
ground.
"You can't store Grandma on the
mantel or scatter your father's ashes across the 13th green of his favorite
golf course," advises Father Peter Polando, canon lawyer and pastor of St.
Matthias Parish in Youngstown, Ohio. "The Church has strong feelings about
the fact that this body has been a temple of the Holy Spirit and requires a
proper burial as a result."
By definitions supplied from
funeral-industry literature, cremation is the process of reducing the body to
bone fragments through the application of intense heat. The bone fragments are
then pulverized, and placed within a temporary container before being returned
to the family.
Catholic burial practice calls for
the cremains to be buried in an urn within a consecrated grave or placed inside
a mausoleum. Keeping ashes at home or scattering them on land or sea, even
where legal, is inappropriate to the Church's deep reverence for the body as a
place where the soul has resided, As "Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic
Encyclopedia" notes:
"Cremation was the normal
custom in the ancient civilized world, except in Egypt, Judea and China. It was
repugnant to early Christians because of the belief in the resurrection of the
body. By the fifth century, cremation had been largely abandoned in the Roman
Empire because of Christian influence."
These days, cremation has become
more common in the United States among persons of various denominations. The
Cremation Association of North America (CANA) estimates that out of roughly 2.6
million deaths each year, there are some 471,000 cremations, or about 20
percent. By the year 2010, the association predicts, cremations will account
for almost 33 percent of funeral planning. Currently, California far outstrips
the nation with 93,221 cremations reported in 1994. CANA says there 1,100
crematories in the United States.
The number of cremations is
increasing for three main reasons. First, there is a growing shortage of burial
spaces in some sections of the nation. Second, in a mobile society where many
people move often, it's much simpler to transport ashes than a casket. Many
elderly who live in the northern states, for example, winter in warmer
climates. It's not unusual for them to leave instructions that, should they die
there, their bodies are to be cremated and the remains flown home to be
interred in the family burial plot. And a third reason is financial: a
cremation typically costs significantly less than a full-scale burial in a
casket.
Just when and why did the Church
change its teaching on this option?
In his book "Questions and
Answers," syndicated columnist Father John Dietzen explains "the
first general legislation banning the burning of bodies as a funeral rite
burning of bodies as a funeral rite came from the Vatican's Holy Office in May
1886, noting the anti-religious and Masonic motivation behind the movement. The
1918 Code of Canon Law continued that ban because cremation was still
considered a flagrant rejection of the Christian belief in immortality and the
resurrection."
But now the new Catechism of the
Catholic Church, which devotes hundreds of words to some subjects,
matter-of-factly devotes only 20 words to the topic: "The Church permits
cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the
resurrection of the body" (no. 2301).
The current Code of Canon Law
(revised in 1983) devotes a mere 30 words that elaborate on the same theme:
"The Church earnestly recommends the pious custom of burial be retained;
but it does not forbid cremation, unless this is chosen for reasons which are
contrary to Christian teaching" (no. 1176).
So what happened between the end of
World War I and the writing of the revised code? In 1963, the Church began to
relax its attitude toward cremation for reasons of national custom, lack of
burial space, disease control and other considerations. Now the revised code's
canon incorporates the 1963 decree, but omits any mention of requiring a good
reason for cremation.
Father Polando noted that the Canon
Law Society of America's "Commentary on the Code of Canon Law" is
more specific: "In the old code, the former law was quite forceful and
restrictive in its opposition to cremation. Actually, the Church has never been
against cremation as such, but discouraged it because of the reasons people
used to justify it.
"The Church reacts to problems
that come to its doorstep," he continued. "The Church adopted the
stance it did because people were using cremation to justify denying the
resurrection of the body."
But now the Church believes those
who request cremation aren't doing so out of any desire to deny bodily
resurrection or defame Church teaching. Cremation and a Catholic funeral
liturgy would, of course, be denied if that were the case.
Lou Jacquet is editor of the Catholic Exponent,
newspaper for the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio.
© "Catholic Heritage", Our
Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750-9957 or call
1-800-348-2440.
This item 645 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
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