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On 08/10/2007, Vivian A. DSouza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As an elder, at 68, I weigh in on the side of cremation. I thought that
> cremation was now allowed by the Catholic church. At least I know of several
> cremations amoung Catholics in the USA. In Goa, in most cases burials are
> only for 3 years. After 3 years the remains are
> disinterred and the family is given two choices. Buy a niche to place the
> bones that come out of the disinterring process or else the bones are
> discarded in a deep pit.
> We carry all kinds of diseases and toxins in our bodies. With burials
> these diseases can spread to others. Cremation to me is the only way to go.
COMMENT: This is an article which was published sometime back:-
Cremation
by Fr. William P. Saunders
Recently, a neighbor's wife died. She was then cremated. They want to
take her ashes and spread them in the mountains she enjoyed hiking so
much. As Catholics, are we allowed to cremate (I think we are now) and
are we allowed to spread the ashes?
While cremation is definitely becoming more and more popular, it is
actually something new to Catholic Christian tradition. The early
Church retained the Jewish practice of bodily burial and rejected the
common pagan Roman practice of cremation. The basis for this rule was
simply that God has created each person in His image and likeness, and
therefore the body is good and should be returned to the earth at
death (Gen 3:19). Moreover, our Lord Himself was buried in the tomb
and then rose in glory on Easter. Therefore, Christians buried their
dead both out of respect for the body and in anticipation of the
resurrection at the last judgment. St. Paul reminds us, "The Lord
Himself will come down from Heaven at the word of command, at the
sound of the archangel's voice and God's trumpet; and those who have
died in Christ will rise first" (1 Thes 4:16).
The Church's stance against cremation was also reinforced by those who
mocked the belief in the resurrection of the body. Many of the early
martyrs were burned at the stake and then their persecutors scattered
their ashes as a sign of contempt for this Christian belief.
After the legalization of Christianity in the fourth century,
cremation generally ceased in the Roman Empire. As Christian culture
continued to spread, even in those missionary lands, regular bodily
burial became the norm, even in cultures that had once practiced
cremation. Due to the religious belief of the people, the civil
authorities also outlawed cremation: for example Charlemagne made
cremation at capital offense in 789. The only exception given to this
rule was when there may have been a mass death and the spread of
disease threatened.
In the 19th century, cremation again arose in Europe due greatly to
the Freemasonry movement and the rationalist philosophy which denied
any notion of the supernatural or spiritual, particularly the
immortality of the soul, the afterlife and the resurrection of the
body. The concern for hygiene and the conservation of land also
prompted a revival. Many began to view cremation as an acceptable
funeral custom. Nevertheless, largely motivated by the affront to the
Catholic faith posed by cremation, the Church officially condemned the
practice in 1886.
The old 1917 Code of Canon Law (No. 1203) prohibited cremation and
required the bodies of the faithful to be buried. Again, an exception
was given in times of mass death and the threat of disease. Those
individuals who had directed their bodies to be cremated were denied
ecclesiastical burial.
In 1963, the Church clarified this regulation. The Sacred Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith (then known as the Holy Office) issued
an instruction "Piam et Constantem" stating, "The constant pious
practice among Christians, of burying the bodies of the faithful
departed, has always been the object of solicitude on the part of the
Church, shown both by providing it with appropriate rites to express
clearly the symbolic and religious significance of burial, and by
establishing penalties against those who attacked this salutary
practice." The Church permitted cremation in cases of necessity, but
prohibited it for anyone who was making a stand against the faith.
The new Code of Canon Law (1983) stipulates, "The Church earnestly
recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the dead be
observed; it does not, however, forbid cremation unless it has been
chosen for reasons wh
